The urine of fishes is like paying back to the ecosystem for the shelter and protection offered in coral reefs provide many species of fish shelter and protection, says a new study.
Details of the study are published in the Nature Communications journal. It writes at locations where commercial fishing occurs the water gets lack of fish urine and this results with lack of nutrients surrounding corals in it.
Fishes find food at night around the reef, but at day time they take shelter around the corals and pee out important nutrients. It is like a mutual benefit to both as phosphorus and nitrogen is released by the coral in the form of ammonium through their gills when the fish pee and this as an aftermath serve as important nutrients for the growth of coral reefs. It is to understand here nutrients level directly affects growth of the reefs.
Even in one earlier research it was found the population of healthy fish is directly related to the good and fast growth of the reefs.
Study researcher Jacob Allgeier said the animals in coral reefs also help in moving the nutrients around.
Allgeier is from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.
The study concludes that removing fishes from water means removing nutrients from the ecosystem and it is important to protect the coral reef ecosystems by protecting the fishes.
Allgeier added, “Simply stated, fish biomass in coral reefs is being reduced by fishing pressure… If biomass is shrinking, there are fewer fish to pee.”
