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Behavior, metabolism and swimming physiology in juvenile Spinibarbus sinensis exposed to PFOS under different temperatures

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Abstract

The harmful effects of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are of growing international concern. This paper aimed to gain an integrated understanding of fitness-related ecological end points, such as behavior, metabolism and swimming physiology, in juvenile Spinibarbus sinensis in response to PFOS toxicity at different temperatures. The fish were exposed to a range of PFOS concentrations (0, 0.32, 0.8, 2 and 5 mg/L) at different temperatures (18 and 28 °C) for 30 days. The effects on fish behavior, metabolic characteristics and aerobic swimming performance caused by PFOS at different temperatures were investigated. Our results showed that both PFOS and temperature had important influences on spontaneous swimming behavior, social interactions, routine metabolic rate (RMR), net energetic cost of transport (COTnet) and critical swimming speed (U crit) in fish. The lowest observed effect concentration for both U crit and RMR was 5 and 0.8 mg/L at 18 and 28 °C, respectively. We found that PFOS affected various behavioral and social end points and also appeared to affect metabolic rates and reduced U crit, likely as a result of increased COTnet, and that many of these effects also changed with respect to temperature. Our results further the understanding of the metabolic and behavioral toxicity of PFOS to aquatic organisms.

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Acknowledgments

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31300340) and Youth Top-notch Talent Cultivation Program of Chongqing Normal University (14CSBJ08). The authors claim no conflicts of interest. The species in this study is economic edible fish and not evaluated in the IUCN red list of threatened species. All experimental procedures were performed following the general animal ethical guidelines of Institutional Animal Ethical Committee (IAEC). We thank the anonymous referees for their comments on this article.

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Correspondence to Shi-Jian Fu.

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Xia, JG., Nie, LJ., Mi, XM. et al. Behavior, metabolism and swimming physiology in juvenile Spinibarbus sinensis exposed to PFOS under different temperatures. Fish Physiol Biochem 41, 1293–1304 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10695-015-0086-1

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