Abstract
As fish move, they incur an energetic cost of transport (COT) from the use of aerobic muscles. Water currents are an integral component of the physical world of fishes, and if water currents are present, fish may pay higher costs fighting the currents, or may use the currents to facilitate movement and reduce COT. Some fish use “selective tidal stream transport” (STST) to move efficiently through tidal regions, swimming into the water column when the current is favorable, and returning to the bottom during opposing tides. This behavior has been reported in marine fish migrating through tidal habitats, but it is also likely of value in daily movements of fish residing in those habitats. It is extremely difficult to directly measure COT in wild fish; however, it is possible to combine analysis of field telemetry data of individual swimming efforts and measurements of metabolic costs of swimming from respirometry in order to estimate the COT in the wild, and to calculate the costs or savings of swimming with or against currents. We describe this novel analytical approach and demonstrate it using data from two green sturgeon tracked in San Francisco Bay, California. In this analysis, when moving at the surface and employing STST, the fish benefited from the current, swimming within 85.5% of optimal efficiency. When conducting non-STST movements near the bottom, swimming was less efficient, with a COT similar to swimming directly into the current. These results suggest that green sturgeon may opportunistically utilize stream transport in daily movements, swimming at the surface and orienting with currents to achieve substantial energetic savings.
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Acknowledgements
GIS bathymetry data were provided by W. Patterson, California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). The authors are indebted to C. Crocker for support and assistance during the field phase of this study, and to R. Kihslinger, N. Kogut, R. Schaffter, D. Kohlhorst, M. Silva for their help. Fish used in this study were generously provided by the Yurok Tribe (brood stock) and CDFW Bay Delta Region (telemetry).
Funding
This research was funded by grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Anadromous Fish Restoration Program (to JJC Jr., Grant # 113321G005) and CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program (to APK, Grant # ERP-02D-P57).
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All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All fish were handled in full compliance with University of California, Davis, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocols.
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Kelly, J.T., Lankford, S.E., Cech, J.J. et al. Estimating the energetic savings for green sturgeon moving by selective tidal stream transport. Environ Biol Fish 103, 455–463 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00969-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-020-00969-6