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Free Malaysia Today
29-05-2025
- Health
- Free Malaysia Today
Clownfish shrink to survive heat waves
Clownfish react to a sudden rise in water temperature by shrinking. (Envato Elements pic) PARIS : As the marine world heats up, clownfish are showing an unsuspected talent for adapting to increasingly extreme conditions. Faced with heat waves exacerbated by climate change, these little fish, made famous by the movie 'Finding Nemo,' adopt a surprising strategy to ensure their survival. In Papua New Guinea's Kimbe Bay, researchers from the Universities of Newcastle, Leeds and Boston, in collaboration with the Mahonia Na Dari Center, observed 134 clownfish (Amphiprion percula) over a five-month period. Each fish was individually identified and measured each month using a non-invasive capture device. Water temperature was recorded every four to six days using submersible sensors installed on site, enabling continuous monitoring of temperature changes during a marine heatwave. Their aim was to understand how these fish react to a sudden rise in water temperature. And the results were striking: 100 of the 134 clownfish decreased in size during the study period. A reaction that could increase their chances of survival by 78% during a marine heatwave. This discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, is a first. Never before has a coral reef fish been observed to shorten its body in response to environmental and social stress. Indeed, it's not just a matter of slimming down. 'This is not just about getting skinnier under stressful conditions, these fish are actually getting shorter. We don't know yet exactly how they do it, but we do know that a few other animals can do this too. 'For example, marine iguanas can reabsorb some of their bone material to also shrink during times of environmental stress,' said Melissa Versteeg, a PhD researcher at Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, who led the study, quoted in a news release. Shrinking together to survive together The researchers took care to measure each individual repeatedly, month after month. The extent of the phenomenon surprised them. This ability to shrink even seems to be coordinated between breeding partners, further increasing their chances of withstanding the heat together. This form of synchronisation underlines the importance of social dynamics in the survival of the species. The morphological flexibility of these fish raises a broader question. What if this kind of shrinking explains why fish are becoming smaller overall in the world's oceans? For Theresa Rueger, a specialist in tropical marine sciences and co-author of the study, this hypothesis merits further investigation. 'Our findings show that individual fish can shrink in response to heat stress, which is further impacted by social conflict, and that shrinking can lead to improving their chances of survival. 'If individual shrinking were widespread and happening among different species of fish, it could provide a plausible alternative hypothesis for why the size of many fish species is declining, and further studies are needed in this area,' she explained. In the underwater depths of a changing world, nature invents unexpected solutions to survive climate change, and clownfish teach us more than we might imagine about the resilience of species.
CTV News
22-05-2025
- Science
- CTV News
Clownfish shrink their bodies to survive ocean heat waves
This photo provided by Morgan Bennett-Smith shows a clownfish near an anemone in Kimbe Bay, off the coast of Papa New Guinea. (Morgan Bennett-Smith via AP) NEW YORK — To survive warming oceans, clownfish cope by shrinking in size. Scientists observed that some of the orange-striped fish shrank their bodies during a heat wave off the coast of Papa New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heat waves are becoming more common and intense underwater due to climate change. Warmer water temperatures can bleach sea anemones that clownfish call home, forcing them to adapt to stay alive. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colorful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals worldwide. They found that 101 clownfish decreased in length on one or more occasions from heat stress. 'We were really shocked at first when we saw that they were shrinking at all,' said study author Morgan Bennett-Smith with Boston University. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Though scientists don't yet know how clownfish shrink, one idea is that they could be reabsorbing their own bone matter. It's possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival odds. The females adjusted their size to stay bigger than their partners, keeping the female-dominated social hierarchy intact, researchers said. Other animals also decrease in size to beat the heat. Marine iguanas get smaller during El Niño events that usher warm waters into the Galapagos. But this coping strategy hadn't yet been spotted in coral reef fish until now. 'This is another tool in the toolbox that fish are going to use to deal with a changing world,' said Simon Thorrold, an ocean ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the new study. The tactic helps clownfish weather heat waves in the short-term, but it's not yet clear how the fish will fare if they have to keep it up in the years to come, Thorrold said. Researchers found the shrinking was temporary. Clownfish possessed the ability to 'catch up' and grow back when their environment got less stressful, showing how living things are staying flexible to keep up with a warming world, said study author Melissa Versteeg with Newcastle University. 'These natural systems really are under stress, but there's a capacity for incredible resilience,' Versteeg said. Adithi Ramakrishnan, The Associated Press
The Independent
21-05-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Clownfish shrink their bodies to survive ocean heat waves
To survive warming oceans, clownfish cope by shrinking in size. Scientists observed that some of the orange-striped fish shrank their bodies during a heat wave off the coast of Papa New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heat waves are becoming more common and intense underwater due to climate change. Warmer water temperatures can bleach sea anemones that clownfish call home, forcing them to adapt to stay alive. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colorful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals worldwide. They found that 101 clownfish decreased in length on one or more occasions from heat stress. 'We were really shocked at first when we saw that they were shrinking at all,' said study author Morgan Bennett-Smith with Boston University. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Though scientists don't yet know how clownfish shrink, one idea is that they could be reabsorbing their own bone matter. It's possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival odds. The females adjusted their size to stay bigger than their partners, keeping the female-dominated social hierarchy intact, researchers said. Other animals also decrease in size to beat the heat. Marine iguanas get smaller during El Niño events that usher warm waters into the Galapagos. But this coping strategy hadn't yet been spotted in coral reef fish until now. 'This is another tool in the toolbox that fish are going to use to deal with a changing world,' said Simon Thorrold, an ocean ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the new study. The tactic helps clownfish weather heat waves in the short-term, but it's not yet clear how the fish will fare if they have to keep it up in the years to come, Thorrold said. Researchers found the shrinking was temporary. Clownfish possessed the ability to 'catch up' and grow back when their environment got less stressful, showing how living things are staying flexible to keep up with a warming world, said study author Melissa Versteeg with Newcastle University. 'These natural systems really are under stress, but there's a capacity for incredible resilience,' Versteeg said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Associated Press
21-05-2025
- Science
- Associated Press
Clownfish shrink their bodies to survive ocean heat waves
NEW YORK (AP) — To survive warming oceans, clownfish cope by shrinking in size. Scientists observed that some of the orange-striped fish shrank their bodies during a heat wave off the coast of Papa New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heat waves are becoming more common and intense underwater due to climate change. Warmer water temperatures can bleach sea anemones that clownfish call home, forcing them to adapt to stay alive. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colorful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals worldwide. They found that 101 clownfish decreased in length on one or more occasions from heat stress. 'We were really shocked at first when we saw that they were shrinking at all,' said study author Morgan Bennett-Smith with Boston University. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances. Though scientists don't yet know how clownfish shrink, one idea is that they could be reabsorbing their own bone matter. It's possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival odds. The females adjusted their size to stay bigger than their partners, keeping the female-dominated social hierarchy intact, researchers said. Other animals also decrease in size to beat the heat. Marine iguanas get smaller during El Niño events that usher warm waters into the Galapagos. But this coping strategy hadn't yet been spotted in coral reef fish until now. 'This is another tool in the toolbox that fish are going to use to deal with a changing world,' said Simon Thorrold, an ocean ecologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who was not involved with the new study. The tactic helps clownfish weather heat waves in the short-term, but it's not yet clear how the fish will fare if they have to keep it up in the years to come, Thorrold said. Researchers found the shrinking was temporary. Clownfish possessed the ability to 'catch up' and grow back when their environment got less stressful, showing how living things are staying flexible to keep up with a warming world, said study author Melissa Versteeg with Newcastle University. 'These natural systems really are under stress, but there's a capacity for incredible resilience,' Versteeg said. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BBC News
21-05-2025
- Science
- BBC News
'Shrinking Nemos': smaller clownfish sound alarm on ocean heat
Fish similar to those made famous by the movie Finding Nemo are shrinking to cope with marine heatwaves, a study has research recorded clownfish living on coral reefs slimmed down drastically when ocean temperatures rocketed in say the discovery was a big surprise and could help explain the rapidly declining size of other fish in the world's oceans.A growing body of evidence suggests animals are shape shifting to cope with climate change, including birds, lizards and insects. "Nemos can shrink, and they do it to survive these heat stress events," said Dr Theresa Rueger, senior lecturer in Tropical Marine Sciences at Newcastle researchers studied pairs of clownfish living in reefs off Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea, a hot spot of marine biodiversityThe wild clownfish are almost identical to the ones depicted in the movie Finding Nemo, in which a timid clownfish living off the Great Barrier Reef goes in search of his scientific study took place in the summer of 2023, when temperatures shot up in the oceans, leading to large swathes of coral turning white. The scientists took multiple measurements of individual clownfish coping with the found the tiny fish didn't just lose weight but got shorter by several millimetres. And it wasn't a one-off - 75% of fish shrunk at least once during the heatwave. Dr Rueger explained: "It's not just them going on a diet and losing lots of weight, but they're actively changing their size and making themselves into a smaller individual that needs less food and is more efficient with oxygen."The fish may be absorbing fat and bone, as has been seen in other animals, such as marine iguanas, although this needs to be confirmed through laboratory Rueger joked that a little bit of movie rewriting might be necessary, with a new chapter ahead for Nemo."The movie told a really good story, but the next chapter of the story surely is, how does Nemo deal with ongoing environmental change?" she told BBC News. Global warming is a big challenge for warm-blooded animals, which must maintain a constant body temperature to prevent their bodies from are responding in various ways: moving to cooler areas or higher ground, changing the timing of key life events such as breeding and migration, or switching their body research is published in the journal, Science Helen on X and on Bluesky.
