Fish lose their way with nostrils on acid

[Beaun]

Just got THIS ARTICLE in my RSS feed and thought people might be interested in it. It was an experiment, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, that tested what happens to baby clownfish when they are exposed to high acid levels in ocean water when dealing with their ability to "smell".

The research is very well done with lots of different experimental controls. The article is a great summer of the paper and it's an interesting read for anyone interested in the subject.

 

[greenbean36191]

Very cool. Many fish also use auditory cues to locate suitable habitat and research has shown that low pH messes them up too. The low pH causes malformation of the otoliths (ear bones) so the fish have a screwed up sense of direction and can't track sounds.

 

[billsreef]

Funny, I just came across while I was on lunch break :lol:

Don't know how it will go, but one of the grad students here was just asking me about egg availability to do some embryo development experiments at different pH's. Be interesting to see how acidification might effect that.

 

[cashyboy]

That is truly crazy.