News by Subject Agriculture

An international research team including scientists from the University of Southampton have shown for the first time that the energetic cost of living (the metabolic rate) of fish can be measured in structures that grow in their ears. This new tool can be used to show how fish are influenced by and adapt to changes in their environment, including climate change.

Governments must provide stronger protection for crucial small mangrove patches, is the call led by scientists at international conservation charity ZSL (Zoological Society of London), which hosts the IUCN SSC Mangrove Specialist Group, in a letter published in Science today.

The reintroduction program for the green turtle in the Cayman Islands has been crucial in order to recover this species, which are threatened by the effects of human overexploitation, according to the first genetic study of the green turtle's reintroduction program in this area of the Atlantic ocean.

For the first time ever, an international research team has shown that fish otoliths record information on fish metabolism. Analyses of old and new otoliths can therefore provide new knowledge about how different species of fish adapt to new conditions, including climate change.

In a new paper, biologists from the University of California, Riverside, studied the evolution of 40 molly and Limia species, and concluded dorsal fin displays arose first for males to compete with other males, only later being used in courtship displays to females. These changes in fin function went hand in hand with enlargement of the male dorsal fin. The fins reached extreme sizes in a few species and appear to be associated with rapid evolution, especially in mollies.

A new scientific study suggests snoek (Thyrsites atun) can recolonize the marine area of the Beagle Channel and South-Western Atlantic waters, an area in the American continent where this species competed with the hake (Merluccius sp.) to hunt preys in warmer periods. The conclusions open a new scene of potential changes that can affect trophic networks in this marine region due the effect of the rise of ocean temperatures.

A University of Southampton research team has developed a map of chemicals found in Jellyfish caught across 1 million square-kilometres of UK waters. The same chemicals are found in other marine animals such as birds and fish. These findings can support conservation efforts by helping track an animals movements and also be used as a tool to detect food fraud by identifying where seafood products were sourced from.