{"id":11455,"date":"2025-06-07T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-07T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.triopsgalaxy.de\/clownfische-schrumpfen-bei-hitze\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T15:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T13:23:07","slug":"clownfish-shrink-in-the-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.triopsgalaxy.de\/en\/clownfish-shrink-in-the-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"Clownfish defy ocean warming with an amazing trick"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Inspired by nature: How clownfish adapt to heatwaves<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oceans are getting warmer and with them underwater life is changing dramatically. But clownfish react to extreme temperatures by simply shrinking. An astonishing survival mechanism that an international research team has now investigated in more detail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an elaborate long-term study published in the journal Science Advances, scientists observed 67 pairs of clownfish (Amphiprion percula) in the coral reef of Kimbe Bay in Papua New Guinea. The focus was on the effects of a heatwave in which the water temperature during the study period, from February to August 2023, was around four degrees above the long-term average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result was surprising: more than 70 per cent of the fish observed shrank in size over the course of the five months, in some cases several times. The animals shrank by several millimetres, a detail that may seem inconspicuous at first glance, but is of enormous biological importance. This is because as their body size decreases, their chances of surviving the heat improve, in some cases by up to 78 per cent compared to conspecifics that retained their size.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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