The effects of oxygen and temperature on the physiology of hatching stage Atlantic salmon ...

• Main Author: Polymeropoulos, ET
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: University Of Tasmania 2023
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25959/23237570.v1; https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/thesis/The_effects_of_oxygen_and_temperature_on_the_physiology_of_hatching_stage_Atlantic_salmon/23237570/1

Environmental change and its impact on the form, function and adaptive responses of fish, especially in relation to maternal effects or individual genotype, is of major interest to biologists. Oxygen levels and temperature have profound effects on the physiology of fish, and early developmental stages are particularly susceptible to environmental challenges. In this thesis the metabolic, cardiorespiratory and cellular stress responses to acute or chronic changes of these variables in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) embryos and yolk-sac alevins were investigated. Eggs and alevins matched their metabolic demand to acute changes in oxygen levels without altering cardiorespiratory function unless oxygen reached critically low levels (5 kPa). In contrast, chronic hypoxia (10.5 kPa for 15 days), but not hyperoxia (28 kPa for 15 days) resulted in functional and structural modifications that enabled metabolic rate to return to the normoxic (21 kPa) pre-exposure level while maintained in hypoxia (10.5 kPa); this ...