A University of Adelaide study of shallow-water fish communities on rocky reefs in south-eastern Australia has found climate change is helping tropical fish species invade temperate Australian waters.
The novel populations of tropical fish in temperate ecosystems are not having much of an impact now, but may do in the future. "It is the expectation that these tropical fish will be permanently established in temperate Australia, where they will become serious competitors with the native temperate fish that have historically lived there."
An earlier study led by University of Adelaide PhD candidates Chloe Hayes and Angus Mitchell, and also involving Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University and University of Technology Sydney, showed tropical generalists might fare better than the specialist temperate fish they're muscling in on.
"This could make survival difficult for Australian fish that are native to these rapidly warming temperate environments," Professor Nagelkerken says.Fish, the most biodiverse vertebrates in the animal kingdom, present evolutionary biologists a conundrum: The greatest species richness is found in the world's tropical waters, yet the fish groups ...
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