That pride comes before a fall certainly applies to sea anemones. The sea creatures that are more like plants than animals (and therefore fall into the class of ‘flower animals’) are suffering greatly from climate change. Not only are they having to deal with rapid increases in temperature, heat waves will also occur more often. This could be a particular problem along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, where the species are already exposed to abrupt changes in their habitat due to tides and storms, the Swedish researchers suspected.
The researchers therefore decided to investigate how coastal marine species cope with extreme water temperatures. They chose to study the sea anemone species Actinia equina , a species in which each individual can exhibit different behaviors, says.
What are sea anemones?
Lynne Sneddon, a zoophysiologist at the University of Gothenburg and co-author of the study. “We call them animal personalities. They are different behavioral life strategies that occur in the same species.” This allowed the researchers to investigate different adaptation techniques within a single species.
Tough anemones
For the study, the scientists first classified so-called character traits. “The sea anemones we studied have two personality traits,” says strategic email list for professional Sneddon. “’Bold’ and ‘shy’, a classification based on the extent to which the anemone takes risks.” A bold anemone responds more quickly to changes in the environment than a shy anemone. This means that the bold ones will, for example, open their tentacles more ar numbers quickly after a change to gather food again than their shy brothers and sisters. This can give them a competitive advantage, but on the other hand it can also make them more vulnerable under extreme conditions. And the latter seems to be the case with the heat waves.
