Tuesday May 5, 2026
Rutgers University Newsroom —
Scientists have developed a powerful new statistical approach that can reveal complex patterns in how fish move and adapt to their environments—information that’s been hiding in plain sight within fish ear stones.
A study published in the journal Reviews in Fish Biology and Fisheries introduces an advanced framework to analyze chemical signatures in fish otoliths—small calcium carbonate structures in fish ears that act like natural recorders of a fish’s life history.
Joyce Ong, research and grants facilitator of the Rutgers Climate and Energy Institute, served as a co-author on the study.
The research team applied this new method to tropical snapper populations across the Indo-Pacific region and discovered that while phylogenetic processes affecting strontium regulation in otoliths remained consistent across vast geographic distances, other chemical signatures (incorporation of barium and magnesium) revealed region-specific differences reflecting local environmental conditions or physiological adaptations.
Traditional analysis methods often oversimplify data by grouping measurements into group means based on sampling regions or across calendar years, potentially missing important patterns at smaller scales. Additionally, traditional approaches use linear regression models, however, most biological processes do not have linear relationships. This new approach captures continuous, non-linear changes throughout a fish’s life, while also accounting for individual variation among fish and changes over time. Together, these provide much more detailed insights into fish movement strategies and how they respond to environmental changes.