By Susan Milius
Greenhouse gases dissolving in the world’s oceans may have the eerie effect of disrupting young fishes’ natural reluctance to swim toward scary noises.
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When raised in water mimicking the predicted acidifying chemistry of future oceans, juvenile clownfish appeared perfectly willing to swim toward speakers broadcasting the recorded daytime sounds of a reef teeming with predators, says fish ecologist Steve Simpson of the University of Bristol in England. “When you’re a centimeter long as a fish, anything is a predator,” he says.