Fish Shoaling Behavior Under Climate Stressors Across Natural Reef Analogues

A study by Angus Mitchell quantifies how shoal size influences foraging, activity, and risk-avoidance behaviors in the range-extending reef fish Pomacentrus coelestis. Data collected from natural climate analogues spanning present-day, ocean warming, and combined warming–acidification reefs shows fish densities were 84% lower at the acidification reef. The dataset suggests acidification-driven habitat simplification reduces fish density and shoal size, indirectly altering behavioral expression.

Use Cases

• Modeling the relationship between shoal size and behavioral expression (foraging vs. predator avoidance) based on shoal size metrics.
• Analyzing the indirect effects of ocean acidification on collective behavior based on habitat complexity and fish density data.
• Comparing the impact of chronic stressors (warming, acidification) versus acute stressors (marine heatwaves) on fish behavior across different climate conditions.
• Investigating habitat simplification as a mediator for climate change effects on social structure in marine species.

Strengths

• Data includes specific quantitative findings, such as fish densities being 84% lower and shoals up to 79% smaller at the acidification reef compared to others.
• Study design uses natural climate analogues, providing a field-based comparison across present-day, warming, and combined warming–acidification conditions.
• Dataset is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, allowing for broad reuse and sharing.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The dataset is relatively small at 8.6 MB, potentially limiting the scope of analysis.

Provenance

Source

Angus Mitchell via figshare.

Collection Method

Field observations quantified from natural climate analogue reefs.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-19 06:21:37; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Likely reef locations, though specific geography is not stated.