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Physiological and behavioural responses to seasonal changes in environmental temperature in the Australian spiny crayfish Euastacus sulcatus

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Abstract

The strategies used by ectotherms to minimise the detrimental effects of suboptimal thermal environments on physiological performance are often related to whether they inhabit a terrestrial or aquatic environment. Most terrestrial ectotherms use thermoregulatory strategies to maintain body temperature within an optimal range, while many aquatic ectotherms utilise thermal acclimation to maintain performance over varying seasonal temperatures. This study aimed to elucidate the relative contributions of acclimation and behavioural thermoregulation to maintaining whole-animal performance over varying seasonal temperatures in the semi-terrestrial Lamington spiny crayfish (Euastacus sulcatus). Crayfish activity and surface temperatures were determined by means of radio tracking and behavioural observations. Field studies demonstrated that E. sulcatus is exposed to stable daily temperatures, varying only between seasons from 10°C in late winter to over 20°C in summer. Also, terrestrial behaviour corresponded to a small portion of crayfish time (1.13%), much lower than predicted, indicating that E. sulcatus has limited opportunity for behavioural thermoregulation. We also tested the effect of acclimation to either 10 or 20°C on chela strength and stamina. We found acclimation had a more marked effect on chela stamina than maximum strength measures; however, overall acclimatory capacity was limited in E. sulcatus. Thus, we found that the semi-terrestrial crayfish E. sulcatus used neither thermoregulatory behaviours nor physiological strategies to deal with seasonal changes in environmental temperature.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Peter Kennedy for allowing us to utilise his property for tracking and collection of crayfish. We also thank the many volunteers that assisted with field work and Stewart Macdonald for generously giving time and effort into this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Katrin Lowe, Sean FitzGibbon & Robbie S. Wilson

  2. School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2000, Australia

    Frank Seebacher

Authors
  1. Katrin Lowe
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  2. Sean FitzGibbon
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  3. Frank Seebacher
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  4. Robbie S. Wilson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robbie S. Wilson.

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Communicated by I. D. Hume.

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Lowe, K., FitzGibbon, S., Seebacher, F. et al. Physiological and behavioural responses to seasonal changes in environmental temperature in the Australian spiny crayfish Euastacus sulcatus . J Comp Physiol B 180, 653–660 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-010-0445-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-010-0445-2

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