Recent advances in telemetry for estimating the energy metabolism of wild fishes

Abstract

Metabolic rate is a critical factor in animal biology and ecology, providing an objective measure that can be used in attributing a cost to different activities and to assessing what animals do against some optimal behaviour. Ideally, metabolic rate would be estimated directly by measuring heat output but, until recently, this has not been easily tractable with fishes so instead metabolic rate is usually estimated using indirect methods. In the laboratory, oxygen consumption rate is the indirect method most frequently used for estimating metabolic rate, but technical requirements preclude the measurement of either heat output or oxygen consumption rate in free-ranging fishes. There are other field methods for estimating metabolic rate that can be used with mammals and birds but, again, these cannot be used with fishes. Here, the use of electronic devices that record body acceleration in three dimensions (accelerometry) is considered. Accelerometry is a comparatively new telemetric method for assessing energy metabolism in animals. Correlations between dynamic body acceleration (DBA) and oxygen consumption rate demonstrate that this will be a useful proxy for estimating activity-specific energy expenditure from fishes in mesocosm or field studies over extended periods where other methods (e.g. oxygen consumption rate) are not feasible. DBA therefore has potential as a valuable tool for attributing cost to different activities. This could help in gaining a full picture of how fishes make energy-based trade-offs between different levels of activity when faced with conflicting or competing demands arising from increased and combined environmental stressors. METABOLIC RATE AS A UNIVERSAL CURRENCYMetabolic rate is widely regarded as a universal currency in animal biology and ecology, providing an objective measure that can be used in attributing a cost to different activities and specifically helping to assess what animals do against some optimal behaviour (i.e. a behaviour that maximizes one or more biological characteristics such as growth or reproductive success). In their seminal paper, Brown et al. (2004) proposed that, 'Metabolism provides a basis for using first principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to link the biology of individual organisms to the ecology of populations, †Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +44 1502 524353; email: Julian.metcalfe@ cefas.co.uk This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.1

Unusual aerobic performance at high temperatures in juvenile Chinook salmon,Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

“…Furthermore, these investigations can help to guide future research efforts and inform management targets. For example, the inter-individual variation observed in MR measurements and AAS values in the present study and in previous work (Millidine et al ., 2009; Norin and Malte, 2012; Metcalfe et al ., 2016) warrants further investigation. This variation could be due to relaxed selective pressure associated with hatchery populations, which would allow for the survival of individuals with potentially low fitness (reviewed by Reisenbichler and Rubin, 1999) and low physiological performance capabilities.…”

Population‐level consequences of seismic surveys on fishes: An interdisciplinary challenge

“…Before addressing the literature in more detail, the flow chart provides an overview of how exposure to the sounds of a seismic survey may change behaviour in such a way that it reduces individual foraging efficiency (Purser & Radford, ; Shafiei Sabet, Neo, & Slabbekoorn, ) and increases vulnerability to predation (Chan et al., ; Simpson, Purser, & Radford, ). Furthermore, swimming more or less efficient may also detrimentally affect individual energetics (Metcalfe et al., ; Villegas‐Amtmann et al., ), while swimming less or in the wrong direction may result in missed mating or spawning opportunities (Boussard, ; Rossington, Benson, Lepper, & Jones, ). These changes in behaviour, together with acute or chronic stress physiological changes, may undermine individual body condition, immunocompetence and physiological investment in growth and reproduction (Barton, ; Sierra‐Flores, Atack, Migaud, & Davie, ; Wendelaar‐Bonga, ).…”

“…Sound levels underwater typically go unnoticed by humans that are on or near the water, and observing fish behaviour is even challenging to marine investigators that apply special tools (e.g. Bruce et al., ; Cooke et al., ; Metcalfe, Wright, Tudorache, & Wilson, ). Furthermore, it is challenging to determine the long‐term impact on welfare or fitness from short‐term behavioural changes in response to anthropogenic noise; the challenge is even greater if there is a physiological response but no apparent change in behaviour (Kight & Swaddle, ; Kunc, McLaughlin, & Schmidt, ).…”

Effect of weight and frontal area of external telemetry packages on the kinematics, activity levels and swimming performance of small‐bodied sharks

“…Juvenile lemon sharks Negaprion brevirostris (Poey 1868) were selected as a model species because they are the target of a substantial body of telemetry work (Sundström et al ., ) and their small size and morphology are characteristic of small‐bodied carcharhinid sharks (Webb & Keyes, ). Miniaturized acceleration biologgers (accelerometers) were selected as the external telemetry package because accelerometers are becoming popular among fish telemetry studies (Brown et al ., ; Metcalfe et al ., ) with few validation studies to date (Bullock et al ., ). Furthermore, N .…”