Latest news with #MorganBennett-Smith
Yomiuri Shimbun
6 days ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Clownfish Shrink Their Bodies to Survive Ocean Heatwaves
Morgan Bennett-Smith via AP A clownfish is seen inside an anemone. 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 heatwave off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Fish that slimmed were more likely to survive. Heatwaves 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 heatwave 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 on May 21 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 Nino 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 heatwaves 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 Star
6 days ago
- Science
- The Star
Clownfish shrink in size to survive heat waves
A clownfish near an anemone in Kimbe Bay, off the coast of Papa New Guinea. — Photos: MORGAN BENNETT-SMITH/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. A clownfish inside an anemone. Scientists monitored and measured 134 colourful clownfish in Kimbe Bay during an intense heat wave in 2023 that's still bleaching corals 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 findings were published recently 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 possible the smaller stature may help the clownfish save energy during a stressful scorch since smaller fish need less food. A clownfish is shown next to an anemone. Certain clownfish breeding pairs also synced their shrink to boost their survival 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 Nino 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. Two clownfish swimming near an anemone. 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. – AP
The Star
25-05-2025
- Science
- The Star
Clownfish, the main hero of 'Finding Nemo', shrinks to survive heatwaves, study finds
This photo provided by Morgan Bennett-Smith shows a clownfish inside an anemone. -- Morgan Bennett-Smith via AP 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," says Melissa Versteeg, a PhD researcher at Newcastle University's School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, who led the study, quoted in a news release. 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 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 synchronization 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 coauthor 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 many fish species is declining, and further studies are needed in this area," she explains. 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. - RelaxNews
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
An extreme ocean heat wave did something remarkable to these fish
During a severe heat wave in 2023, scientists scuba diving off the coast of Papua New Guinea captured clownfish to measure their bodies. Between February and August, they calculated the length of 134 of these iconic, orange and white fish once a month, taking a total of six measurements for each fish. Those measurements revealed something peculiar: Most of the fish shrank. This week, the researchers reported their findings in Science Advances, concluding that the fish got shorter — on the scale of a few millimeters, or a small, single-digit percent of their length — in response to the heat wave. 'We were so surprised to see shrinking in these fish that, to be sure, we measured each fish individual repeatedly over a period of five months,' said Melissa Versteeg, a doctoral researcher at Newcastle University, who led the study in collaboration with Mahonia Na Dari, an environmental organization, and Walindi Resort. 'In the end, we discovered [that downsizing] was very common in this population.' Versteeg and her colleagues don't know how, exactly, the fish are shrinking — one untested idea is that the fish might be reabsorbing some of their bone material or tissue. But getting smaller isn't a problem. In fact, the study found, it may be an adaptation to help clownfish survive hotter ocean temperatures. Morgan Bennett-Smith Last year, the planet was about 2.65 degrees warmer than it was in the late 1800s. This level of warming impacts wild animals in a number of strange, mostly bad, ways, from fueling koala-killing wildfires to causing corals to bleach and then starve. But rising temperatures also appear to be making many species smaller. One especially striking study, published in 2019, found that birds shrank by an average of about 2.6 percent between 1978 and 2016. More recent analyses have linked rising temperatures to a reduction in body size of small mammals in North America and marine fish. Most of these existing studies report that animals, on average, are simply not growing as large. The new study on clownfish, however, suggests individual fish are shrinking over mere weeks in response to a heat wave, which, in the case of the Papua New Guinea event, pushed temperatures in the bay about 7 degrees (4 degrees Celsius) above average. Being tiny has its advantages in a hot climate: Warm-blooded animals, like mammals, shed heat more easily when they're small and this helps them cool down. The benefits for cold-blooded creatures, such as clownfish, aren't as clear, though researchers think they may have an easier time meeting their bodies' energy requirements when they're small. Morgan Bennett-Smith Regardless of the reason, being small seems to help clownfish when it's hot. The fish that shrank, the study found, had a much higher chance of surviving. 'It was a surprise to see how rapidly clownfish can adapt to a changing environment,' Versteeg said. 'We witnessed how flexibly they regulated their size, as individuals and as breeding pairs, in response to heat stress as a successful technique to help them survive.' The study adds a layer of complexity to what is otherwise a depressing tale about the world's oceans. Heat waves linked to climate change, like the one that occurred during this study, are utterly devastating coral reefs — and in severe cases, are nearly wiping out entire reef sections. These colorful ecosystems are home to countless marine animals, including those we eat, like snappers, and clownfish. Amid that loss, animals are proving highly resilient. They're trying hard to hold on. Yet if warming continues, even the best adaptations may not be enough.
Vox
23-05-2025
- Science
- Vox
An extreme ocean heat wave did something remarkable to these fish
is an environmental correspondent at Vox, covering biodiversity loss and climate change. Before joining Vox, he was a senior energy reporter at Business Insider. Benji previously worked as a wildlife researcher. During a severe heat wave in 2023, scientists scuba diving off the coast of Papua New Guinea captured clownfish to measure their bodies. Between February and August, they calculated the length of 134 of these iconic, orange and white fish once a month, taking a total of six measurements for each fish. Those measurements revealed something peculiar: Most of the fish shrank. This week, the researchers reported their findings in Science Advances, concluding that the fish got shorter — on the scale of a few millimeters, or a small, single-digit percent of their length — in response to the heat wave. Morgan Bennett-Smith 'We were so surprised to see shrinking in these fish that, to be sure, we measured each fish individual repeatedly over a period of five months,' said Melissa Versteeg, a doctoral researcher at Newcastle University, who led the study in collaboration with Mahonia Na Dari, an environmental organization, and Walindi Resort. 'In the end, we discovered [that downsizing] was very common in this population.' Versteeg and her colleagues don't know how, exactly, the fish are shrinking — one untested idea is that the fish might be reabsorbing some of their bone material or tissue. But getting smaller isn't a problem. In fact, the study found, it may be an adaptation to help clownfish survive hotter ocean temperatures. Morgan Bennett-Smith When it's good to be small Last year, the planet was about 2.65 degrees warmer than it was in the late 1800s. This level of warming impacts wild animals in a number of strange, mostly bad, ways, from fueling koala-killing wildfires to causing corals to bleach and then starve. Related This is how many animals could go extinct from climate change But rising temperatures also appear to be making many species smaller. One especially striking study, published in 2019, found that birds shrank by an average of about 2.6 percent between 1978 and 2016. More recent analyses have linked rising temperatures to a reduction in body size of small mammals in North America and marine fish. Most of these existing studies report that animals, on average, are simply not growing as large. The new study on clownfish, however, suggests individual fish are shrinking over mere weeks in response to a heat wave, which, in the case of the Papua New Guinea event, pushed temperatures in the bay about 7 degrees (4 degrees Celsius) above average. Why do they do this? Being tiny has its advantages in a hot climate: Warm-blooded animals, like mammals, shed heat more easily when they're small and this helps them cool down. The benefits for cold-blooded creatures, such as clownfish, aren't as clear, though researchers think they may have an easier time meeting their bodies' energy requirements when they're small. Morgan Bennett-Smith Regardless of the reason, being small seems to help clownfish when it's hot. The fish that shrank, the study found, had a much higher chance of surviving. 'It was a surprise to see how rapidly clownfish can adapt to a changing environment,' Versteeg said. 'We witnessed how flexibly they regulated their size, as individuals and as breeding pairs, in response to heat stress as a successful technique to help them survive.' The study adds a layer of complexity to what is otherwise a depressing tale about the world's oceans. Heat waves linked to climate change, like the one that occurred during this study, are utterly devastating coral reefs — and in severe cases, are nearly wiping out entire reef sections. These colorful ecosystems are home to countless marine animals, including those we eat, like snappers, and clownfish. Amid that loss, animals are proving highly resilient. They're trying hard to hold on. Yet if warming continues, even the best adaptations may not be enough.
