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Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events

An increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme events is predicted to occur as a result of climate change. In coastal ecosystems, hurricanes and flooding can cause dramatic changes in water quality resulting in large mortality events in estuarine fauna. Facultative migration behaviors represe...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bailey, Helen, Secor, David H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4960606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27455872
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30280
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author Bailey, Helen
Secor, David H.
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Secor, David H.
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description An increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme events is predicted to occur as a result of climate change. In coastal ecosystems, hurricanes and flooding can cause dramatic changes in water quality resulting in large mortality events in estuarine fauna. Facultative migration behaviors represent a key adaptation by which animals can evacuate ecological catastrophes, but remain poorly studied in marine systems. Here we identify coastal evacuations by otherwise resident riverine striped bass in the Hudson River Estuary, New York, USA, caused by an intense period of tropical storms in autumn 2011. These storms produced record rainfall and high water discharges into the Hudson River Estuary that increased the water level and reduced the water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen levels. Striped bass moved out of the estuary, exhibiting novel migration behaviours, that may have been in response to the strong flow and unsuitable conditions. In the months following the storms, some fish demonstrated exploratory trips back to the estuary, which may have been to assess the conditions before returning for the remainder of the winter. Behavioural adaptions to weather events by striped bass and other coastal fishes will depend on maintenance of key population segments and unimpeded evacuation routes.
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spelling pubmed-49606062016-08-05 Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events Bailey, Helen Secor, David H. Sci Rep Article An increase in the intensity and frequency of extreme events is predicted to occur as a result of climate change. In coastal ecosystems, hurricanes and flooding can cause dramatic changes in water quality resulting in large mortality events in estuarine fauna. Facultative migration behaviors represent a key adaptation by which animals can evacuate ecological catastrophes, but remain poorly studied in marine systems. Here we identify coastal evacuations by otherwise resident riverine striped bass in the Hudson River Estuary, New York, USA, caused by an intense period of tropical storms in autumn 2011. These storms produced record rainfall and high water discharges into the Hudson River Estuary that increased the water level and reduced the water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen levels. Striped bass moved out of the estuary, exhibiting novel migration behaviours, that may have been in response to the strong flow and unsuitable conditions. In the months following the storms, some fish demonstrated exploratory trips back to the estuary, which may have been to assess the conditions before returning for the remainder of the winter. Behavioural adaptions to weather events by striped bass and other coastal fishes will depend on maintenance of key population segments and unimpeded evacuation routes. Nature Publishing Group 2016-07-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4960606/ /pubmed/27455872 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30280 Text en Copyright © 2016, The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Article
Bailey, Helen
Secor, David H.
Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title_full Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title_fullStr Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title_full_unstemmed Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title_short Coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
title_sort coastal evacuations by fish during extreme weather events
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4960606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27455872
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep30280
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