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Effects of temperature and carbon dioxide on green sturgeon blood–oxygen equilibria

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Abstract

There are three Northeast Pacific Rivers still supporting spawning populations of green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris, but all have been modified hydrologically and thermally by dam construction. Age 1- to 3-year-old green sturgeon, progeny of artificially spawned, wild-caught Klamath River adults, were used to assess the effects of temperature and carbon dioxide on critical hematological parameters related to evolutionary adaptations of this species to its physical environment. In vitro measurement of the effect of temperature and carbon dioxide on blood–oxygen affinity and equilibrium curve shape yielded the following data for the respective temperature treatments (11, 15, 19, and 24°C): half-saturation values (P50’s, kPa, a measure of affinity) 1.26, 1.44, 1.63, 1.69 for low-PCO2 treatments and 2.08, 2.41, 2.74, 2.94 for high-PCO2 treatments; Bohr factors −0.322, −0.327, −0.366, −0.536; and non-bicarbonate buffer values (slykes) −6, −3, −5, −8. Temperature sensitivities (ΔH, kJ mol O −12 ) between these respective temperatures were −34.20, −15.24, −6.74 for low-PCO2 treatments and −20.05, −27.00, and −11.55 for the high-PCO2 treatments. These data suggest that juvenile green sturgeon may tolerate moderate environmental hypoxia, moderate aerobic activity, low to moderate hypercapnia, and moderate temperature changes in their environments.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Yurok Tribal Council and fisheries biologists (especially, D. Hillemeier and M. Belchik) for broodstock; S.I. Doroshov, J.P. Van Eenennaam, and J. Linares-Casenave for broodstock spawning assitance; P. Lutes and E. Hallen for logistical support; J. Roessig, S. Nakamoto, T. Mussen, and C. Crocker for technical assitance; P. Allen and C. Woodley for useful discussions, and the comments of three reviewers for manuscript improvement. Financial support for this project was provided by the California Bay-Delta Authority ERP-02D-P57, Anadromous Fish Restoration Program (of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Agreement No. 11332-1-G005), CALFED (Agreement No. 99−F105), the UC Agricultural Experiment Station (Grant No. 3455−H) and a Fellowship co-sponsored by the Pharmacology and Toxicology Graduate Group and the John Muir Institute of the Environment, University California Davis.

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  1. Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    Robert C. Kaufman

  2. Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    Robert C. Kaufman, Ann G. Houck & Joseph J. Cech Jr.

  3. Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture (CABA), University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, California, 95616, USA

    Joseph J. Cech Jr.

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  1. Robert C. Kaufman
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Correspondence to Robert C. Kaufman.

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Kaufman, R.C., Houck, A.G. & Cech, J.J. Effects of temperature and carbon dioxide on green sturgeon blood–oxygen equilibria. Environ Biol Fish 76, 119–127 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9014-7

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