A Japanese nuclear power plant created a habitat for tropical fish

A Japanese nuclear power plant created a habitat for tropical fish

Source: new scientist

5/6/2020

Credit: Reiji Masuda/Kyoto University

Tropical fish and other species were able to colonise a small coastal area in the Sea of Japan thanks to discharges from a nearby nuclear power plant. The findings suggest global warming will drastically alter marine ecosystems around the temperate areas of Japan over the next few decades.

Since 2004, Reiji Masuda at Kyoto University and his colleagues have been carrying out underwater surveys every winter at three coastal sites near Kyoto. One of these sites is warmed by the water used to cool the Takahama nuclear power plant, keeping winter water temperatures around 13.6°C.

There, the divers saw both more fish overall and a greater diversity of species, including tropical ones such as the blue damselfish (Pomacentrus coelestis) and the cutribbon wrasse (Stethojulis interrupta). Tropical invertebrates included the long-spined sea urchin (a species of Diadema).

“There were so many sea urchins as they did not have predators,” says Masuda.

These tropical species weren’t seen at the other two sites, even though winter temperatures there were only slightly lower, at 12.3°C and 11.7°C.

Continue...

News Id		Source	Stamp	country
5426	Why the Amazon River Can't Be Crossed By Bridge	cntraveler	2018-04-09	BR
5427	23 Percent of Southern California Fish is Mislabeled	7SAN DIEGO	2019-03-09	US
5428	Fishing for black crappie a Holland River shell game	Yorkregion	2019-03-11	CA
5429	A Look at the Rainbow Trout of Kamloops	Kamloops	2019-03-01	CA
5430	Six new species of tentacle-faced fish discovered in Amazon	The Independent	2019-03-07	US
5431	British mackerel has sustainable status stripped after years of overfishing	independent	2019-03-06	UK

217 of [217 - pages.]