Landscape transcriptomics reveals ecological constraints on fish under anthropogenic coastal change
Abstract
Urban zones are rapidly expanding worldwide, exposing organisms to complex and multidimensional stressors. However, linking organismal responses to environmental change at ecologically relevant scales remains a major challenge. To investigate the constraints imposed on fish living in coastal urban environments, we apply a landscape-scale framework to identify molecular signatures associated with human activities. Using transcriptomes from a common coral reef fish, Chrysiptera cyanea , sampled across 18 coastal sites in Okinawa, Japan, we implement scalable analytical and visualisation tools and identify coordinated shifts in metabolic, immune, and inflammatory pathways. By integrating field data with a fasting-feeding experiment, we find that transcriptomes of adult fish from urbanised sites resemble those of well-fed experimental fish, suggesting that these areas provide an energy-rich diet while imposing chronic stress. Our findings reveal how anthropogenic activities reshape organismal resilience and demonstrate the power of landscape transcriptomics as a link between molecular signatures and ecological outcomes across changing environments.
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BibTeX
@article{gairin2026landscape,
title = {{Landscape transcriptomics reveals ecological constraints on fish under anthropogenic coastal change}},
author = {Emma Gairin and Saori Miura and Zoé Chamot and Camille A. Sautereau and Jann Zwahlen and Hiroki Takamiyagi and Yann Gibert and Marcela Herrera and Vincent Laudet},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77751-2},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77751-2},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Landscape transcriptomics reveals ecological constraints on fish under anthropogenic coastal change
AU - Emma Gairin
AU - Saori Miura
AU - Zoé Chamot
AU - Camille A. Sautereau
AU - Jann Zwahlen
AU - Hiroki Takamiyagi
AU - Yann Gibert
AU - Marcela Herrera
AU - Vincent Laudet
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/09
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77751-2
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77751-2
AB - Urban zones are rapidly expanding worldwide, exposing organisms to complex and multidimensional stressors. However, linking organismal responses to environmental change at ecologically relevant scales remains a major challenge. To investigate the constraints imposed on fish living in coastal urban environments, we apply a landscape-scale framework to identify molecular signatures associated with human activities. Using transcriptomes from a common coral reef fish, Chrysiptera cyanea , sampled across 18 coastal sites in Okinawa, Japan, we implement scalable analytical and visualisation tools and identify coordinated shifts in metabolic, immune, and inflammatory pathways. By integrating field data with a fasting-feeding experiment, we find that transcriptomes of adult fish from urbanised sites resemble those of well-fed experimental fish, suggesting that these areas provide an energy-rich diet while imposing chronic stress. Our findings reveal how anthropogenic activities reshape organismal resilience and demonstrate the power of landscape transcriptomics as a link between molecular signatures and ecological outcomes across changing environments.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -