LANSING — New research shows that some Michigan fish species are becoming smaller in response to a changing climate.

The University of Michigan study on fish length analyzed 75 years of data from nearly 1,500 inland lakes.

Researchers found a small drop in the length of various fish across age and species from 1945 to 2020, a development that they say could raise concerns about the longevity of some populations.

“Those changes in fish size were strongly related to changes in lake temperatures,” said Kevin Wehrly, manager of the DNR’s Institute for Fisheries Research and co-author of the study. “There’s pretty, pretty strong evidence that these changes — and other changes we’ve observed in fish populations and communities — are related to changes in climate.”

Peter Flood, the research’

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