Future too warm for baby sharks
New research has found as climate change causes the world’s oceans to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished and into environments that are already difficult for them to survi
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au
Scientists have solved the mystery of why some closely-related species of an iconic reef fish have vastly different colour patterns, while others look very similar.
Innovative research led by scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies based at James Cook University, examined the differences in appearance of 42 species of the butterflyfish.
They found that on reefs where closely related butterflyfish species ranges overlap, the differences in colour patterns between the two were most pronounced.
The team used high-resolution digital colour photographs to quantify colour patterns and explore how they were influenced by evolutionary processes.
“Our results show that, over millions of years, butterflyfishes have evolved the greatest diversity of visual markings when they live in the same area as other, closely related species,” said lead author and PhD student Christopher Hemingson.
“Crucially, we also found that this only happens when both species have ranges that are of similar sizes,” said Mr Hemingson.
“We were surprised to find that when one species’ range is a lot larger than the neighbouring species, the pattern is reversed – with the colour pattern of overlapping species found to be less different,” said co-author Dr Peter Cowman.
Professor David Bellwood, a co-author and senior investigator, noted that this is the first time geographic range dynamics have been shown to be an important predictor of colour differences among marine fish species.
“This research is the first of its kind to quantify colour and pattern differences simultaneously among butterflyfish species. It showed us that colour pattern differences can evolve very quickly among species (within 300,000 years) but then remain stable over millions of years,” said Professor Bellwood.
“Colour is far more complicated than just looking different from other species,” said Mr Hemingson.
“These colour patterns also depend specifically on what other species are also present. It is an interesting piece to the puzzle and may help explain why reef fishes are so colourful.”
The paper “Colour pattern divergence in reef fish species is rapid and driven by both range overlap and symmetry” is published in the journal Ecology Letters.
Citation: Hemingson, RF, Cowman, PF, Hodge, JR & Bellwood, DR (2018). Colour pattern divergence in reef fish species is rapid and driven by both range overlap and symmetry. Ecology Letters DOI: 10.1111/ele.13180
Images available here. Please attribute as indicated.
Contact
Mr Christopher Hemingson
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia
Email: christopher.hemingson@my.jcu.edu.au
Dr Peter Cowman
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia
Office: +61 7 4781 3194
Email: peter.cowman@jcu.edu.au
Prof. David Bellwood
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia
Office: +61 7 4781 4447
Email: david.bellwood@jcu.edu.au
For More Information
Catherine Naum
Communications Manager
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
T: +61 (7) 4781 6067
M: +61 (0) 428 785 895
E: catherine.naum1@jcu.edu.au
New research has found as climate change causes the world’s oceans to warm, baby sharks are born smaller, exhausted, undernourished and into environments that are already difficult for them to survi
A new study shows the coastal protection coral reefs currently provide will start eroding by the end of the century, as the world continues to warm and the oceans acidify. A team of researchers led
A team of scientists led by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) won one of the nation’s top science awards at tonight’s ‘Oscars of Australian science’, the Eureka P
An analytical tool will be used to assess the climate risks facing historic World Heritage sites in Africa—the ruins of two great 13th century ports and the remains of a palace and iron-making indus
Abstract: It is a little over a decade since research commenced into the effects of anthropogenic ocean acidification on marine fishes. In that time, we have learned that projected end-of-century
Abstract: Increased uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere has caused the world’s ocean to become more acidic. Different marine habitats are known to have varying ranges of CO2 across mul
Abstract: The Allen Coral Atlas (http://allencoralatlas.org) partnership uses high-resolution satellite imagery, machine learning, and field data to map and monitor the world’s coral reefs at unp
Abstract: Climate change is causing the average surface temperature of the oceans to rise and increasing the frequency and intensity of marine heatwaves. In addition, absorption of additional CO2
Abstract: Marine environments are a concealing medium, where observations of natural fish behavior are challenging. In particular, the geographic and depth distributions of migratory top predators ar
Abstract: Invasive species management can be the the subject of debate in many countries due to conflicting ecological, ethical, economic, and social reasons, especially when dealing with a species s
Abstract: Ocean acidification, the increase in seawater CO2 with all its associated consequences, is relatively well understood in open oceans. In shelf seas such as the Great Barrier Reef, processe
Abstract: The backdrop of legends and movies, the deep sea has always been unfathomable because we had no idea what existed there. Once thought to be barren of life, we now know this couldn’t be
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
James Cook University Townsville
Queensland 4811 Australia
Phone: 61 7 4781 4000
Email: info@coralcoe.org.au