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Researchers are a step closer to understanding the impact of a warming climate on the colourful freshwater fish living in Queensland's tropical rainforests.
The effect of environmental factors on different populations of the Australian eastern rainbowfish is the subject of a new study recently published in the journal Heredity.
"We found that, while limited connectivity among different river catchments could explain some of the genetic differences, environmental factors like water flow and temperature offered a better explanation for the patterns overall," research fellow Katie Gates said.
The study shows that hydrological and thermal variables were important environmental predictors of both genetic and physical variation.
One aspect of variation relates to fin position, which is known to be heritable in other rainbowfish species and varies among populations living in different environments.
"These patterns suggest that populations in different parts of the Wet Tropics may have adapted to their local environments in unique ways," Flinders University Professor Luciano Beheregaray said.
"Unfortunately, this also indicates that future changes in water flow and temperature due to climate change could have a big impact on the fitness and diversity of tropical rainforest fishes."
The study is an illustration of the complex interplay between genetics, morphology (the study of physical shape) and ecology in contributing to the diversity of a tropical rainforest species.
The researchers hope that by better understanding how these factors interact, more effective conservation strategies can be developed.
Biologists from the Flinders University Molecular Ecology Lab, University of Canberra and Canada's Université Laval used a combination of genetics and morphology to investigate how different environmental factors might influence variations.
