Ocean acidification does not impair the behaviour of coral reef fishes

• Main Authors: D. Clark, Timothy, Raby, Graham, Roche, Dominique, Binning, Sandra, Speers-Roesch, Ben, Jutfelt, Fredrik, Sundin, Josefin
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: figshare 2020
• Subjects: 60801 Animal Behaviour; FOS Biological sciences; 60201 Behavioural Ecology; 60604 Comparative Physiology; 60203 Ecological Physiology; 60205 Marine and Estuarine Ecology incl. Marine Ichthyology; Marine Biology; Ocean acidification
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.7871522.v1; https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Ocean_acidification_does_not_impair_the_behaviour_of_coral_reef_fishes/7871522/1

Data for: Clark TD, Raby GD, Roche DG, Binning SA, Speers-Roesch B, Jutfelt F, Sundin J (2020) Ocean acidification does not impair the behaviour of coral reef fishes. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1903-y Please see the readme.txt file for metadata. Abstract: The partial pressure of CO2 in the oceans has increased rapidly over the past century, driving ocean acidification and raising concern for the stability of marine ecosystems1–3. Coral reef fishes are predicted to be especially susceptible to end-of century ocean acidification on the basis of several high-profile papers that have reported profound behavioural and sensory impairments—for example, complete attraction to the chemical cues of predators under conditions of ocean acidification. Here, we comprehensively and transparently show that—in contrast to previous studies—end-of-century ocean acidification levels have negligible effects on important behaviours of coral reef fishes, such as the avoidance of chemical cues from predators, fish activity levels and behavioural lateralization (left–right turning preference). Using data simulations, we additionally show that the large effect sizes and small within-group variances that have been reported in several previous studies are highly improbable. Together, our findings indicate that the reported effects of ocean acidification on the behaviour of coral reef fishes are not reproducible, suggesting that behavioural perturbations will not be a major consequence for coral reef fishes in high CO2 oceans.