Oxygen consumption in relation to sustained exercise and social stress in Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus L.)

Abstract Rates of oxygen consumption were measured repeatedly in feeding groups of Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus L.) subjected to moderate sustained exercise or allowed to perform routine swimming activity (control). Oxygen consumption did not differ significantly between treatments. Agonistic a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Experimental Zoology
Main Authors: Christiansen, Jørgen Schou, Jørgensen, Even H., Jobling, Malcolm
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 1991
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jez.1402600203
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fjez.1402600203
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/jez.1402600203
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Summary:Abstract Rates of oxygen consumption were measured repeatedly in feeding groups of Arctic charr ( Salvelinus alpinus L.) subjected to moderate sustained exercise or allowed to perform routine swimming activity (control). Oxygen consumption did not differ significantly between treatments. Agonistic activity, assessed in terms of bite mark frequencies, were significantly reduced in exercising fish. Consequently, high levels of spontaneous activity displayed by the control fish in performing agonistic interactions may have led to substantial increases in energetic costs resulting in energy expenditures equivalent to those shown by fish performing forced swimming at moderate speeds. Plasma cortisol levels measured at the end of the experiment suggested that both control and exercising fish were subjected to chronic stress with cortisol levels of exercising fish being significantly higher than those of controls. The validity of using plasma cortisol levels as an indicator of stress per se is discussed.