By Steve Milloy
It turns out that carbon dioxide emissions and ‘ocean acidification’ – which creates stupidity like the one below – don’t stop Nemo from finding his way home, according to a new study.
The media release is below. Research is here.
Sharp reduction in reported severity of ocean acidification effects on fish behavior
A peer-reviewed publication
PLOS
This article is under embargo. It is not available for public release until February 3, 2022 14:00 ET (February 3, 2022 19:00 GMT/UTC)
Sharp reduction in reported severity of ocean acidification effects on fish behavior
As humans fill the atmosphere with excess carbon dioxide, much of it will be absorbed by the oceans, acidifying them – a potential concern for marine life. However, according to a new study published February 3 in the journal PLOS Biology, previous concerns about the effects on fish behavior appear to have subsided.
Research led by Jeff Clements and Fredrik Jutfelt at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, along with Josefin Sundin (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences) and Timothy Clark (Deakin University), demonstrates that The apparent severity of ocean acidification affecting fish behavior, as reported in the scientific literature, has decreased significantly over the past decade.
The researchers used meta-analysis to analyze trends in the reported effects of ocean acidification on fish behavior in studies published between 2009-2019. While early studies reported extremely clear and strong effects, the magnitude of those effects has decreased over time and been insignificant over the past 5 years.
“A textbook example of the attenuation effect,” explains Dr. Clements, lead author of the study. “The diminution effect is the tendency of the strength of scientific findings to decrease over time. While relatively well-recognized in fields such as psychology and medicine, it is less well known in ecology — our study provides perhaps the most striking example of it in the field. hitherto. ”
To determine what might have caused the attenuation effect in their meta-analysis, the authors explored a variety of biological factors, but found that biological differences between studies over time could not interpret the results. Instead, prevailing scientific biases largely explain the attenuation effect.
Co-author Professor Jutfelt said: “Science is often subject to a publication bias, in which reputable authors and journals selectively publish powerful implications. “It was only after others tried to replicate the original results and published less striking findings that the real effects became known. Our analysis shows that strong effects in this area are preferred for publication in high-impact journals”.
Along with publication bias, studies reporting serious effects tend to have smaller sample sizes. Not only that, but these less rigorous studies in reputable journals still receive more attention from researchers and have a stronger influence on perceived performance in the field.
While begging others to focus more on recent studies with larger sample sizes, Clements feels that the team’s results are good news. “While climate change will certainly affect marine animals, it at least seems unlikely that ocean acidification will affect fish behavior directly.” The decline is also testament to the self-regulating nature of the scientific process.
Jutfelt, Sundin and Clark agree. “Carbon dioxide emissions have serious negative effects, especially through global warming. With our study results, future research efforts can focus on questions where we see significant effects repeated over time,” said Sundin.
“We demonstrate a strong ‘attenuation effect’ of ocean acidification on fish behavior – one of the most striking examples of this phenomenon in the field of ecology for fish,” adds Clements. now.
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