![lantern fish lantern fish](https://live.staticflickr.com/4334/36187683051_acdb8d1829_b.jpg)
The paper has been published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series. What she has found is that the traditional way for figuring out the metabolic rate, by working out the rate for a well-known species such as cod and then scaling the results to the new species in question, is actually wrong in this case and could mean that large parts of fisheries science might not be reflecting reality. To do this, Sarah and her colleagues at the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Southampton have been looking at the inner ear of the fish, which contains a record of their lives not unlike tree rings. 'You can get a handle on all of those things by using their metabolic rate.' 'We are interested in how much these fish contribute to the carbon cycle, getting to know a bit more about how they might be impacted by climate change, and also getting better models to predict their biomass,' explains Sarah. As part of this research, she has looked at six species of lanternfish. Sarah Alewijnse is a PhD student at the Museum who is looking into the metabolic rates of deep-sea fish.
![lantern fish lantern fish](https://i0.wp.com/noaateacheratsea.blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/img_3122.jpg)
As they do so, they play a crucial role in the carbon cycle of the oceans, pulling carbon from the surface and depositing down in the deep.īut the exact role that these species play is not particularly well understood. But what they lack for in looks, they make for in numbers.Įvery day, in every ocean billions of these fish swim from the deep up to the surface and back down again. Typically measuring under 15 centimetres long, the small, blunt-headed lanternfish are rather unassuming.