We’re not sure what’s up with ocean and reef research lately but there seems to be quite a plethora of gloomy ecology papers being published, each decrying a new way that the ocean is down the creek withouth a paddle. The alram bell this time involves a study which looked at the capacity of juvenile clownfish to smell and home in on environmental cues. When the same clownfish were exposed to more acidic water such as those which are projected to exist in our Carbon-saturated oceans, the larval fish were much less able to detect the chemical roadsigns to sweet home. The findings suggest that natural populations may become disrupted as larval fish fail to settle out of their planktonic stage as they should. We here at Reefbuilders have a little bit more faith in the resilience of marine life in general but this is still discouraging to hear.
