Exploring relationships between oxygen consumption and biologger-derived estimates of heart rate in two warmwater piscivores

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2022

Publication Title

Journal of Fish Biology

Volume

100

Issue

1

First Page

99

Last Page

106

Abstract

Estimating metabolic rate in wild, free-swimming fish is inherently challenging. Here, we explored using surgically implanted heart rate biologgers to estimate metabolic rate in two warmwater piscivores, bowfin Amia calva (Linneaus 1766) and largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède 1802). Fish were surgically implanted with heart rate loggers, allowed to recover for 24 h, exposed to a netting and air exposure challenge, and then placed into respirometry chambers so that oxygen consumption rate (ṀO2) could be measured in parallel to heart rate (fH) for a minimum of 20 h (ca. 20 estimates of ṀO2). Heart rate across the duration of the experiment (at 19°C) was significantly higher in largemouth bass (mean ± s.d., 45 ± 14 beats min−1, range 18–86) than in bowfin (27 ± 9 bpm, range 16–98). Standard metabolic rate was also higher in largemouth bass (1.06 ± 0.19 mg O2 kg−1 min−1, range 0.46–1.36) than in bowfin (0.89 ± 0.17 mg O2 kg−1 min−1, range 0.61–1.28). There were weak relationships between fH and ṀO2, with heart rate predicting 28% of the variation in oxygen consumption in bowfin and 23% in largemouth bass. The shape of the relationship differed somewhat between the two species, which is perhaps unsurprising given their profound differences in physiology and life history, illustrating the need to carry out species-specific validations. Both species showed some potential for a role of fH in efforts to estimate field metabolic rates, although further validation experiments with a wider range of conditions (e.g., digestive states, swimming activity) would likely help improve the strength of the ṀO2–fH relationship for use in field applications.

DOI

10.1111/jfb.14923

ISSN

00221112

E-ISSN

10958649

PubMed ID

34636030

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS