Icelandic fish 'hot tubs' reveal genetic adaptations to warming-and unexpected overeating
Researchers studying threespine stickleback fish in Iceland's geothermal waters have found that warmer environments lead to significant behavioral and biological changes. These fish exhibit hyperphagia, or excessive overeating, and demonstrate improved fat storage efficiency compared to their counterparts in cooler waters.
Why it matters
The study provides a biological model for understanding how aquatic species may adapt to the physiological stresses of global warming.
edited by Sadie Harley , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus). Credit: Wikimedia Commons. JSutton93 Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 4.0 International license. New research, led by the University of Glasgow reveals that adaptation to warmer waters causes fish to display a range of behavioral and biological differences, including obesity, overeating and lower metabolism.
The study, "Parallel adaptation to geothermally-warmed habitats due to common structural variation and functional developmental pathways" is published in Nature Communications .
The findings have important implications for our understanding of the potential impact of global warming on aquatic life.
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