El Niño climate extremes

Dr Tania Mendo and Dr Althea Davies spent two weeks in northern Peru with Peruvian project partners, collecting water and fish samples to understand how El Niño climate extremes affect mullet population migration and how biochemical signals of this climate event are recorded in mullet tissue. This involved rough driving over desert and dry lagoons, towing the boat through shallow muddy water and lots of fish dissection and water filtration – a steep learning curve, helped by their fantastic field assistant, Marco Martinez, from Universidad Nacional Agraria la Molina, Lima. Nothing went to waste – photos of the mullet before and after, alongside the amazing wetland mosaic created by El Niño rainfall. The results will inform fisheries climate adaptation, palaeoclimate reconstruction and archaeological interpretation of past societal responses to climate extremes. They thank their partners from Universidad National Agraria la Molina, Universidad de Piura, Prisma NGO, local collaborators, and NERC for funding.