Abstract
Farming is a technique employed by both humans and animals to enhance crop yields, allowing their populations to increase beyond the natural carrying capacity of the environment. Using volcanic CO2 vents, we investigate how a species of herbivorous fish (the black scalyfin Parma alboscapularis) may use increasing anthropogenic CO2 emissions to enhance its crop yields. We found that these farming fish can take advantage of this resource enrichment, to grow crops within smaller territories and increase the capacity of the environment to support more densely packed fish populations.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Jones, C. G., Lawton, J. H. & Shachak, M. Oikos 69, 373–386 (1994).
Bulleri, F., Bruno, J. F., Silliman, B. R. & Stachowicz, J. J. Funct. Ecol. 30, 70–78 (2016).
Wernberg, T. et al. Science 353, 169–172 (2016).
Nagelkerken, I., Goldenberg, S. U., Ferreira, C. M., Russell, B. D. & Connell, S. D. Curr. Biol. 27, 2177–2184 (2017).
Walther, G. R. et al. Nature 416, 389–395 (2002).
Ghedini, G. & Connell, S. D. Ecology 97, 2671–2679 (2016).
Klumpp, D., McKinnon, D. & Daniel, P. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 40, 41–51 (1987).
Hata, H. & Kato, M. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 237, 227–231 (2002).
Brawley, S. H. & Adey, W. H. Environ. Biol. Fishes 2, 45–51 (1977).
Plagányi, E. & Branch, G. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 194, 113–122 (2000).
Connell, S. D. & Russell, B. D. Proc. R. Soc. B 277, 1409–1415 (2010).
Goldenberg, S. U., Nagelkerken, I., Ferreira, C. M., Ullah, H. & Connell, S. D. Glob. Change Biol. 23, 4177–4184 (2017).
Nagelkerken, I., Russell, B. D., Gillanders, B. M. & Connell, S. D. Nat. Clim. Change 6, 89–93 (2016).
Connell, S. D. et al. Curr. Biol. 27, R95–R96 (2017).
Dill, L. M. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 40, 398–408 (1983).
Smith, J. M. Models in Ecology (Cambridge Univ. Press, London, 1974).
Thresher, R. E. Reef Fish: Behavior and Ecology on the Reef and in the Aquarium (John Bartholomew and Son, Edinburgh, 1980).
Saunders, B. J., Kendrick, G. A. & Harvey, E. S. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 472, 107–118 (2015).
Ceccarelli, D. M. Coral Reefs 26, 853–866 (2007).
Saunders, B., Harvey, E. & Kendrick, G. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 517, 193–208 (2014).
Ceccarelli, D. M., Jones, G. & McCook, L. J. in Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review (eds Gibson, R. N., Barnes, M. & Atkinson, R. J. A.) 283–290 (Taylor & Francis, London, 2001).
Precht, W. F., Aronson, R. B., Moody, R. M. & Kaufman, L. PLoS ONE 5, e10835 (2010).
Schopmeyer, S. A. & Lirman, D. PLoS ONE 10, e0141302 (2015).
Bennett, S., Wernberg, T., Harvey, E. S., Santana-Garcon, J. & Saunders, B. J. Ecol. Lett. 18, 714–723 (2015).
Folgarait, P. J. Biodivers. Conserv. 7, 1221–1244 (1998).
Connell, S. D. et al. Ecology 88, 1005–1010 (2018).
Shaw, E. C., Munday, P. L. & McNeil, B. I. Geophys. Res. Lett. 40, 4685–4688 (2013).
Brinkman, T. J. & Smith, A. M. Mar. Freshw. Res. 66, 360–370 (2015).
Dickson, A. G., Sabine, C. L. & Christian, J. R. Guide to best practices for ocean CO 2 measurements (North Pacific Marine Science Organization, 2007).
Mehrbach, C., Culberson, C. H., Hawley, J. E. & Pytkowicx, R. M. Limnol. Oceanogr. 18, 897–907 (1973).
Dickson, A. G. & Millero, F. J. Deep Sea Res. A 34, 1733–1743 (1987).
Pearson, P. N. & Palmer, M. R. Nature 406, 695–699 (2000).
Littler, M. M. Aquat. Bot. 7, 21–34 (1979).
Acknowledgements
The experiments were performed under animal ethics approvals S-2015-222 and S-2015-019 (Australia), and approved protocol 977 (New Zealand). Financial support was provided by an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship to I.N. (grant FT120100183). S.D.C. was supported by a Future Fellowship (grant FT0991953) and an ARC Discovery grant (grant DP150104263). C.M.F. was supported by a Science without Borders PhD scholarship through CAPES Brazil (scholarship 13058134). We also thank the Silverado and Tracker II crew for their help during the field work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
All authors designed the experiment. C.M.F. built, maintained and performed the experiment, and analysed the data. C.M.F., I.N. and S.D.C. wrote the paper with contributions from S.U.G.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Supplementary Information
Supplementary tables and figures
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ferreira, C.M., Nagelkerken, I., Goldenberg, S.U. et al. CO2 emissions boost the benefits of crop production by farming damselfish. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 1223–1226 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0607-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0607-2
This article is cited by
-
Phenotypic responses in fish behaviour narrow as climate ramps up
Climatic Change (2022)
-
The functional roles of surgeonfishes on coral reefs: past, present and future
Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries (2022)