> These calcium carbonate structures, which allow fish to hear and sense vibrations in the water, form a new layer each year that can be read somewhat like tree rings.
Each time I read dating method like these, I wonder how stable these method are. Sure they are sensitive to water temperature, right?
We have not-so-long-term climate changes, periodic solar storms and irregular volcano eruption.. All these are affect water temperture...
Wait, so you are saying that over the course of 85 years, we've had enough volcanic eruptions to disrupt the counting of the equivalent of tree rings in fish bones, in a lake in Arizona? When we KNOW when the fish were first put there?
Has Arizona had that many volcanic eruptions in the 20th century which we somehow forgot to notice, but were still strong enough to disrupt the fish?
Just over a century ago, several hundred game fish raised in ponds in Iowa were hauled across the country by rail to be released into Arizona’s newly dammed Salt River.
A recent study suggests some of those transplanted buffalofish are still alive today in the waters of Apache Lake.
Not their descendants. Not members of the same species. The same individual fish that were sent west in 1918, as World War I was winding down in Europe during Woodrow Wilson’s second term as president.
Yes, they are susceptible to temperature. Seasonal temperature changes are mostly what causes them in the first place. Additionally, researchers have used water temperature to create otolith barcodes in captive fish before release. Otolith bands are the result of seasonal changes in growth rate, which is highly trusted to temperature and is why it's a less reliable technique in tropical or deep water species.
That getting said, climate change and other things are unlikely to overwhelm the seasonal cycles. Yes, it's gotten warmer, but it's still colder in winter.
It's also preferable to have validation for a given taxa, but i wouldn't expect that particular worry to be the failure more.
Each time I read dating method like these, I wonder how stable these method are. Sure they are sensitive to water temperature, right? We have not-so-long-term climate changes, periodic solar storms and irregular volcano eruption.. All these are affect water temperture...