The relationship between temperature and standard rate of metabolism in African lungfish, Protopterus aethiopicus, from Uganda

Ashley W. Seifert, Lauren J. Chapman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The relationship between temperature and metabolism among ancient (non-teleost) fishes, while largely unknown, is essential to an understanding of the effects of temperature on fish energetics. This study quantifies the effect of temperature on the standard rate of metabolism in the African lungfish, Protopterus aethiopicus. We present a Q10 value of 3.3 for individuals ranging in body mass from 42-222g across an ecologically-relevant 10°C temperature range. Protopterus aethiopicus showed a positive bilogarithmic (log-log) relationship between the rate of oxygen consumption and body mass (range = 44-222g) at three water temperatures (20, 25, 30°C). However, adjusted mean rates of oxygen consumption differed among all three temperatures. A Q10 value derived as the means of Q10 values calculated for each individual lungfish averaged 3.3 ± 0.4 (SE) for 20-30°C. A comparison of literature-derived Q10 values for both tropical and temperate fishes suggests a higher Q10 in tropical species (n = 3) than in temperate species (n = 10) across an ecologically-relevant thermal range.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)299-303
Number of pages5
JournalAfrican Journal of Aquatic Science
Volume32
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2007

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
the University of Florida, the National Science Foundation (IBN-0094393), the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Raney Fund, and Sigma Xi. Permission to conduct research in Uganda was obtained from the National Council for Science and Technology, the Office of the President, and Makerere University (Uganda). We thank S Takeuchi for her help with the metabolic runs. F Nordlie, B McNab, and J Albert provided helpful comments on this manuscript. Our experimental protocols for P. aethiopicus were approved by the University of Florida (IACUC Project #Z090).

Keywords

  • Air-breathing fish
  • Ecophysiology
  • Metabolic rate
  • Q
  • Respirometry

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Aquatic Science

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