Warming water can create a tropical ecosystem, but a fragile one

Warm water discharged into the Sea of Japan let tropical fish flourish in an artificial hot spot

A cutribbon wrasse (Stethojulis interrupta) is one of the tropical species that disappeared from the Otomi Peninsula in Japan after a nearby power plant shut down operations and stopped releasing warm water.

Mark Rosenstein/iNaturalist.org (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

A decade ago, the waters off the Otomi Peninsula in the Sea of Japan, were a tepid haven.