Relationships among Traits of Aerobic and Anaerobic Swimming Performance in Individual European Sea Bass Dicentrarchus labrax

Abstract

Teleost fishes exhibit wide and temporally stable inter-individual variation in a suite of aerobic and anaerobic locomotor traits. One mechanism that could allow such variation to persist within populations is the presence of tradeoffs between aerobic and anaerobic performance, such that individuals with a high capacity for one type of performance have a reduced capacity for the other. We investigated this possibility in European seabass Dicentrarchus labrax , each measured for a battery of indicators of maximum locomotor performance. Aerobic traits comprised active metabolic rate, aerobic scope for activity, maximum aerobic swimming speed, and stride length, using a constant acceleration test. Anaerobic traits comprised maximum speed during an escape response, maximum sprint speed, and maximum anaerobic burst speed during constant acceleration. The data provided evidence of significant variation in performance among individuals, but there was no evidence of any trade-offs among any traits of aerobic versus anaerobic swimming performance. Furthermore, the anaerobic traits were not correlated significantly among each other, despite relying on the same muscular structures. Thus, the variation observed may reflect trade-offs with other morphological, physiological or behavioural traits.

Fast growers sprint slower: effects of food deprivation and re-feeding on sprint swimming performance in individual juvenile European sea bass

“…This analysis of individual animals revealed trends that were not apparent when comparing mean values, and indicates that the rate of compensatory growth by an individual following a period of food deprivation can directly and negatively impinge on their swim performance. Recent work has demonstrated that swim speeds during sprints are the fastest attainable by juvenile sea bass, exceeding those attained during a Cstart response (Marras et al, 2013). This suggests that the effects of food deprivation and growth during re-feeding observed in the present study may limit the maximal achievable level of anaerobic performance in individual fish.…”

“…This was repeated five times for each fish during each measurement period, with 5 min of recovery time between trials. Maximum sprint speed was taken as the fastest speed measured between any two lasers among those located between 0.08 and 0.5 m from the start position in the five sprint trials (Nelson and Claireaux, 2005;Marras et al, 2013). …”

“…General linear models were also used at each measurement day to examine the effects of treatment (categorical variable), G M , G L (continuous variable, calculated since the previous measurement day) and fork length (continuous variable) on maximum sprint speed, and also the magnitude of the change in maximum sprint speed since the previous measurement period. Short-term repeatability of individual sprint speed was evaluated within each period using Pearson correlations to examine the relationship between the maximum and second-highest sprint speed for each fish measured among trials (Claireaux et al, 2007;Marras et al, 2013). Consistency in maximal sprint speed throughout the course of the study was assessed by calculating the intraclass correlation coefficient within each treatment during each measurement phase (i.e.…”

“…In fishes, speeds achieved during sprints can exceed those attained during all other types of swimming (including the C-start escape response) and may therefore represent the maximal level of anaerobic locomotor performance (Marras et al, 2013). Previous work on cold-climate fish has shown that maximum sprint speed can be reduced after several months of food deprivation [Atlantic cod Gadus morhua (Martínez et al, 2002)], but the effects of food deprivation on sprint performance of other species are unknown.…”

Oxygen consumption and swimming behavior of juvenile Siberian sturgeon Acipenser baerii during stepped velocity tests

“…U crit is measured to estimate maximum swimming speed and maximum metabolic rate (MMR) (Marras et al 2013, Cai et al 2014a). …”