Some fish like it hot

Some fish like it hot

By Judy Skatssoon

Source: abc news

4/27/2005

ish living in freezing Antarctic waters can adapt to rising temperatures and may be unfazed by climate change, new research shows.

Researchers led by Australian scientist Dr Frank Seebacher of the University of Sydney report in Biology Letters that some fish can adjust their cardiovascular system and metabolism to survive in warmer water.

Seebacher and his team travelled to Scott Base on Antarctica's Ross Island, where they studied the bald rock cod, Pagothenia borchgrevinki, a common fish that lives under sea ice.

The fish live in temperatures of -0.5°C to -1.8°C and die in temperatures over 6°C, the lowest known temperature to kill an animal.

According to the so-called specialisation paradigm, the rock cod belongs to a group of animals known as stenotherms.

The theory says stenotherms have traded off their ability to function in a specialised environment for an inability to handle changes in that environment.

But Seebacher says his research has dispelled that paradigm.

"We ... hypothesised that when exposed to longer-term changes, the fish would compensate for those changes," he says. "We have shown that this occurs."