Code and datafile for the study "Fish body sizes change with temperature, but not all species shrink with warming" by Audzijonyte A, Richards SA, Stuart-Smith RD, Pecl G, Edgar GJ, Barrett NS, Payne N, Blanchard JL 2020 Nature Ecology and Evolution, 4, 809–814 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-1171-0)
This study explores fish body size and temperature correlations around the Australian continent. The abstract is below. To run the code download the R project and the associated files. The .Rmd document includes all the information neeeded.
For further uses of this code or datasets please contact the authors of this study
Abstract:
Ectotherms generally shrink under experimental warming, but whether this pattern extends to wild populations is uncertain. We analysed ten million visual survey records, spanning the Australian continent, multiple decades and comprising all common coastal reef fish (335 species). We found that temperature indeed drives spatial and temporal changes in fish body size, but not consistently in the negative fashion expected. Around 55% of species were smaller in warmer waters (especially among small-bodied species) while 45% were bigger. The direction of a species’ response to temperature through space was generally consistent with its response to temperature increase at any given location, suggesting that spatial trends could help forecast fish responses to warming. However, temporal changes were ~10x faster than spatial trends (~4% versus ~40% body size change per 1°C change through space and time respectively). The rapid and variable responses of fish sizes to warming may herald unexpected impacts on ecosystem restructure, with potentially greater consequences than if all species were shrinking.