Acid-base status of fish at different temperatures

In the water-breathing fishes, rising temperatures are accompanied by progressive reduction in pH, reductions in bicarbonate concentration, and slight rises in CO2 partial pressure. The pH-temperature slope of both intra- and extracellular compartments varies considerably, from -0.009 to -0.033/degrees C, with a rather consistent pattern of red muscle greater than white muscle greater than heart. Three different approaches to acid-base analysis, the imidazole-alphastat model, the strong-ion difference analysis, and the delta-bicarbonate approach, were applied to a set of data from the fresh-water channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). A principal difficulty encountered in using all three approaches was that assumptions were required regarding the chemical behavior of the intracellular buffers, but the delta-bicarbonate approach has the practical advantage of emphasizing parameters that can be measured directly. Closed-system models are not generally applicable to fish, and the interest for future work lies in deciphering the significance of tissue-to-tissue variations in pH regulation and in elucidating the mechanisms of the strong-ion transfers.