Estimating activity-specific energy expenditure in a teleost fish, using accelerometer loggers

Abstract

The ability to define and quantify the behaviour and energetic costs of different activities is fundamental to a full understanding of fish ecology and movement, but monitoring activity and measuring energy expenditure in fish in the field is problematic. New telemetry methods using data loggers that incorporate tri-axial accelerometers promise to provide a method for simultaneously recording the behaviour and activity-specific energy use in both the laboratory and field. Using electronic data loggers equipped with tri-axial accelerometers we have measured dynamic body acceleration (DBA) during aerobic exercise in European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax whilst swimming in a swim-tunnel respirometer at ambient water temperatures of between 5.5 and 17.5°C. For all individuals, dynamic body acceleration (both vectorial dynamic body acceleration [VeDBA] and overall dynamic body acceleration [ODBA]) scaled linearly with oxygen consumption and as a function of ambient temperature. When the 2 DBA metrics were compared, VeDBA was not significantly different from ODBA, though the value for Akaike's information criterion was lower for VeDBA (indicating a better fit for the VeDBA model). In this paper, we provide further evidence to support the use of acceleration as a means to quantify the activity-specific energetic costs of swimming in teleosts and highlight some of the problems associated with monitoring the activity and metabolic rate of fish in restricted laboratory conditions.

Correlations of metabolic rate and body acceleration in three species of coastal sharks under contrasting temperature regimes

“…However, the strong relationships between ODBA and ṀO 2 during activity and relatively low error found in this and previous studies of fish (e.g. Gleiss et al, 2010;Wright et al, 2014), comparisons of ODBA and heart rate methods in fish (Clark et al, 2010) and air-breathing taxa (Green et al, 2009) together suggest that this method can estimate activityspecific energy expenditure with a high level of accuracy.…”

“…Models were compared using the small-sample corrected Akaike's information criterion (AICc), residuals, log likelihood and R 2 of the models. Normality of the residuals of the optimal models was tested using an Anderson-Darling test (Wright et al, 2014).…”

“…As temperature is widely regarded as the most important environmental factor driving metabolic rate of ectotherms (Gillooly et al, 2001;Kingsolver, 2009;Angilletta et al, 2002), it is imperative that temperature is accounted for in these calibrations. Despite this importance, the effects of temperature on the ODBA-ṀO 2 relationship have only been examined in one of these fish species, the European sea bass (Wright et al, 2014). The effects of temperature on ODBA-ṀO 2 relationships have also been directly examined in a few other ectotherm species, including green turtles (Chelonia mydas; Enstipp et al, 2011), American lobsters (Homarus americanus; Lyons et al, 2013) and king scallops (Pecten maximus; Robson et al, 2016).…”

“…This technique is based on the principle that animal movement, which can be measured through multi-dimensional acceleration, results directly from muscle contraction, which is catalysed by adenosine triphosphate (ATP) hydrolysis and thus requires oxygen (Wilson et al, 2006;Gleiss et al, 2011). Past accelerometry studies have investigated the relationship between animal movement and metabolic rate, most commonly measured through respirometry, and have indicated strong correlations between the two in a variety of animal taxa, including birds (Wilson et al, 2006;Green et al, 2009;Halsey et al, 2009aHalsey et al, ,b, 2011bElliott et al, 2012), amphibians (Halsey and White, 2010), marine turtles (Enstipp et al, 2011;Halsey et al, 2011c), mammals (Fahlman et al, 2008;Halsey et al, 2009a), marine invertebrates (Payne et al, 2011;Lyons et al, 2013;Robson et al, 2012) and fish (Clark et al, 2010;Gleiss et al, 2010;Yasuda et al, 2012;Wilson et al, 2013a,b;Wright et al, 2014;Mori et al, 2015). These studies have shown great promise in the applicability of accelerometry as a proxy for metabolic rate, maintaining strong correlations across diverse taxa and through a variety of behaviours, with low error compared with other techniques (Halsey et al, 2009a).…”

“…These laboratory calibrations have been conducted for relatively few species of fish, including red sea bream (Pagrus major; Yasuda et al, 2012), Japanese sea bass (Lateolabrax japonicas; Mori et al, 2015), European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax; Wright et al, 2014), sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka; Clark et al, 2010;Wilson et al, 2013a,b) and scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini; Gleiss et al, 2010). As temperature is widely regarded as the most important environmental factor driving metabolic rate of ectotherms (Gillooly et al, 2001;Kingsolver, 2009;Angilletta et al, 2002), it is imperative that temperature is accounted for in these calibrations.…”