Preliminary research data suggest warmer temperatures and increased salt levels might have negative effects on the behavior and physiology of school sharks. A clear indicator of physiological changes is higher levels of stress markers such as glucose and lactate concentrations in the blood.
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Researchers also noted behavior changes according to the warmer and saltier the environment is and the more time school sharks spend resting. School sharks are usually constantly swimming. A break in their usual activity means they might be too stressed to find food or escape predators. The findings will be presented this week at the American Physiological Society (APS) Intersociety Meeting in Comparative Physiology: From Organism to Omics in an Uncertain World conference in San Diego. Researchers also examined the response of school sharks to increases in temperatures and salinity…