Near complete local extinction of iconic anemonefish and their anemone hosts following a heat stress event.

npj biodiversity Pub Date : 2025-09-12 DOI:10.1038/s44185-025-00107-4

Morgan F Bennett-Smith, Helena Villela, Micaela S S Justo, Viktor Nunes Peinemann, Michael L Berumen, Susana Carvalho, Neus Garcias-Bonet, Francisca C García, Melissa Versteeg, Theresa Rueger, Peter M Buston, Raquel S Peixoto

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Abstract

A fundamental question in modern-day ecology is: How will populations and their interactions respond to a rapidly changing climate? Documenting local collapses of ecologically and economically important populations can offer insight into broader patterns of decline. Here, we monitored anemonefish (Amphiprion bicinctus) and their host sea anemones (Radianthus magnifica) on three central Saudi Arabian Red Sea reefs from 2022 to 2024, including a 2023 marine heatwave that peaked at a Degree Heating Weeks (DHW) value of ~22 °C-weeks. Across all reefs, we observed a sequence of 100% anemone bleaching, 94.3-100% anemonefish mortality, and 66.4-94.1% anemone mortality. We compare these findings to other recent Indo-Pacific heat stress events of varying intensity, where similar declines were not observed. Our study highlights the vulnerability of mutualistic reef species to extreme heat and suggests that such events may drive local, if not regional, extinctions of ecologically important symbioses.

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在热应激事件后，标志性的海葵鱼和它们的海葵宿主几乎完全灭绝。

现代生态学的一个基本问题是：种群及其相互作用将如何应对快速变化的气候？记录当地生态和经济上重要的种群数量的减少，可以让我们深入了解更广泛的种群减少模式。在这里，我们从2022年到2024年在沙特阿拉伯红海中部的三个珊瑚礁上监测海葵鱼（Amphiprion bicinctus）及其宿主海葵（Radianthus magnifica），其中包括2023年的海洋热浪，其最高加热周（DHW）值为~22℃-周。在所有珊瑚礁中，我们观察到海葵漂白率为100%，海葵鱼死亡率为94.3-100%，海葵死亡率为66.4-94.1%。我们将这些发现与近期其他印度-太平洋地区不同强度的热应激事件进行了比较，在这些事件中没有观察到类似的下降。我们的研究强调了共生珊瑚礁物种对极端高温的脆弱性，并表明这种事件可能会导致局部（如果不是区域性的话）生态上重要的共生物种灭绝。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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npj biodiversity

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