Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 29, 2025
04:22
Physiological Characterization of the Coral Holobiont Using a New Micro-Respirometry Tool
Published on: April 28, 2023
878
Local- and Regional-Scale Climate Variability Drives Complex Patterns of Growth Synchrony and Asynchrony in Deep-Sea
Joseph B Widdrington1, Patrick Reis-Santos1, Jed I Macdonald2
1Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Global Change Biology
|February 5, 2025
Summary
Deep-sea fish growth patterns show complex synchrony and asynchrony across the Indo-Pacific, influenced by oceanographic shifts. Understanding these patterns is crucial for assessing population vulnerability and ensuring sustainable fisheries management.
Area of Science:
- Marine Ecology
- Fisheries Science
- Climate Change Biology
Background:
- Climatic variations influence life history traits, impacting population vulnerability and resilience.
- Synchronized growth under stress can reduce phenotypic diversity, increasing extinction risk.
- Little is known about growth synchrony/asynchrony in long-lived deep-sea fish facing environmental variability.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate spatial and temporal patterns of growth synchrony in deep-sea fishes (Etelis spp.) across the Indo-Pacific.
- To assess how oceanographic phenomena influence growth synchrony at individual, population, and species levels.
- To understand the implications of growth synchrony for deep-sea ecosystem productivity and vulnerability.
Main Methods:
- Developed otolith growth chronologies for Etelis spp. across 65° longitude and 20° latitude.
- Reconstructed interannual growth time series from six Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs).
- Analyzed spatial synchrony in growth patterns over five decades, linking them to oceanographic indices like the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.
Main Results:
- Complex patterns of synchronous and asynchronous growth were observed in adult Etelis spp. populations.
- Growth synchrony varied across different spatial scales (individual, population, species) and EEZs.
- Oceanographic shifts, particularly the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, mediated observed growth synchrony patterns.
Conclusions:
- Growth synchrony in deep-sea fish is influenced by life history stage, environmental variability scales, and ecological factors (competition, dispersal).
- Understanding deep-sea growth synchrony is vital for predicting productivity fluctuations and vulnerability to climate change.
- Findings provide key insights for sustainable management of deep-sea fish stocks under future environmental stressors.
Related Concept Videos
01:16What is Climate?
18.3K
Climate refers to the prevailing weather conditions in a specific area over an extended period. As the saying goes, “Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.” Climate is influenced by geographic factors, such as latitude, terrain, and proximity to bodies of water.
18.3K
01:50Global Climate Change
24.2K
Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.
24.2K
01:06Primary Production
23.5K
The total amount of energy acquired by primary producers in an ecosystem is called gross primary production (GPP). However, of this energy, producers use some for metabolic processes, and some is lost as heat, decreasing the amount of energy available to the next trophic level. The remaining usable amount of energy is called the net primary productivity (NPP). In terrestrial ecosystems, NPP is driven by climate, while light penetration and nutrient availability drive NPP in aquatic ecosystems.
23.5K
02:02Ecological Niches
23.5K
All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.
23.5K
01:57Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
25.1K
Though evaporation from plant leaves drives transpiration, it also results in loss of water. Because water is critical for photosynthetic reactions and other cellular processes, evolutionary pressures on plants in different environments have driven the acquisition of adaptations that reduce water loss.
25.1K