• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • WordPress
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
Science Update

Science Update

Sharing Science | Satisfying Curiosity | Debunking BS

  • Spotlights
  • Reality Check
  • Why Is It?
  • Radio Archives
  • Sciup @ School
Home » Radio Archive » Daily Show » Fish on Acid

Fish on Acid

April 29, 2014
https://podcast.scienceupdate.com/140429_sciup_fish.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window

BOB HIRSHON (host):

Fish behaving strangely. I’m Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update.

Juvenile fishes from a carbon dioxide seep, such as damselfishes (pictured above), were less able to detect predator odor than fishes from a control coral reef. (Danielle Di
Juvenile damselfishes were less able to detect predator odor than fishes from a control coral reef. (Danielle Dixson)

Acidifying ocean waters, driven by climate change, may cause bizarre, self-destructive behavior in some fish. This according to a new report by Georgia Tech marine biologist Danielle Dixson. Her team collected fish from a naturally acidic reef in Papua New Guinea. She says most fish avoid waters that predators recently swam in. But these fish did the opposite.

DANIELLE DIXSON (Georgia Institute of Technology):

They were attracted to the predator almost 100 percent of the time. So they chose to spend their time in the water that contained the predator odor, as opposed to the offshore water that had no predator odor in it.

HIRSHON:
Fish in acidic waters also venture further from safety, and re-emerge more quickly after they do hide. Dixson notes that climate models predict that by the year 2100, the entire ocean may become as acidic as this reef. This may make some fish a danger to themselves. I’m Bob Hirshon for AAAS, the Science Society.

Category: Daily Show, Station DownloadTag: Animal Behavior, Chemistry, Climate & Weather, Environment & Conservation
Previous Post:Krypton & Ancient Ice
Next Post:DNA in Amber

Sidebar

Radio Program Archives

Want to learn more about the brain? The environment? Here you can browse the topics that come up regularly on Science Update.

Search the Archives

Categories

  • Daily Show
  • Station Download
  • Weekly Show

Find By Tag

  • 2020
  • Acoustics & Sound
  • Aging
  • Animal Behavior
  • Anthropology
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy & Space
  • Biology
  • Brain Science
  • Bugs
  • Cat Video
  • Chemistry
  • Children & Families
  • cicadas
  • Climate & Weather
  • Communications
  • Computer Science
  • Economics & Business
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering & Technology
  • Environment & Conservation
  • Genetics & Evolution
  • Geology
  • Marine Science
  • Materials Science
  • Mathematics
  • Medicine & Health
  • Microbiology
  • Nanotechnology
  • NASA
  • Nutrition & Food Science
  • Paleontology & Dinosaurs
  • Physics
  • Plants & Agriculture
  • Political Science
  • Reality Check
  • Social & Behavioral Sciences
  • Sports & Fitness
  • spotlight
  • Spotlight Bugs
  • Terrorism & War
  • Why Is It? Questions
  • Wildlife
  • Year in Review

Find By Date

Science Update
  • About Science Update
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

Recent Posts

Image of computer screen depicting an orange cat with a variety of alphanumeric scientific data superimposed on the the screen.
Spotted skunk performing handstand to threaten predators

Copyright © 2025 · Springtail Media LLC · All Rights Reserved · Powered by Pongos