SEASONAL MIGRATIONS OF FISH ACROSS THE DEEP-SEA FLOOR

Published: 1 April 2020

SCIENTISTS DOCUMENT SEASONAL MIGRATIONS FOR THE FIRST TIME

 

Scientists have, for the first time, documented seasonal migrations of fish across the seafloor in deep-sea fish, revealing an important insight that will further scientific understanding of the nature of our planet.

The study analysed over seven years of deep-sea photographic data from West Africa, linking seasonal patterns in surface-ocean productivity with observed behavioural patterns of fishes at 1500 metres.

Dr David Bailey, Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology at the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, said: “Animal migrations are really important in nature, because when animals move from place to place, they transport energy, carbon and nutrients. We were only able to discover this behaviour because of the collective expertise and decade-long commitment of the Universities and industry partners. These kinds of long-term projects and the datasets they generate are vital to understanding ongoing change in the oceans and how they may be impacted in the future.”

Link to study: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13215

Read more: https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_716947_en.html

 


First published: 1 April 2020

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