Fellow Story
Gallo publishes on fish populations thriving in waters containing almost no oxygen
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have discovered that two species of fish are capable of living in ocean waters almost completely devoid of oxygen.
Marine biologist Natalya Gallo, a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps, and colleagues reported high abundances of fish living in deep Gulf of California waters with almost no dissolved oxygen. Two species – a catshark and a cusk eel – were described in the journal Ecology as low-oxygen extremophiles.
The study, “Home sweet suboxic home: remarkable hypoxia tolerance in two demersal fish species in the Gulf of California,” appeared in online versions of the journal Nov. 27.
