Physiology and behaviour of free-swimming Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) facing fluctuating temperature conditions

Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua L.), acclimated to 5 °C, were equipped with ultrasonic transmitters which allowed the continuous monitoring of their vertical movements and heart rate. Fish were then placed in a 125 m3 tower tank in which the various thermal conditions they encounter in their natural environment were reproduced. Physiological and behavioural responses of cod were followed in parallel to the induced environmental changes. The experimental conditions studied in the tower tank were also reproduced in a swimming respirometer, where oxygen consumption and heart rate could be monitored within the activity range of a free-swimming animal. In a homogeneous water column, a rise in temperature induced marked increases in fish swimming activity, heart rate and heart beat-to-beat variability. In a thermally stratified environment, voluntary activity also increased when the thermal structure of the water column was altered, though no temperature-dependent changes in heart rate were observed. In this case, fish avoided the new temperature conditions, exhibiting distinct thermoregulatory behaviour. Stratification of the water column also prompted daily cyclic changes in fish distribution, animals tending to be in deeper and colder water layers during the day and in shallower and warmer layers at night. Respirometry experiments revealed that the thermoregulatory behaviour observed in free-ranging fish was probably driven by the energetic expedient of maintaining the physiological status quo ­ i.e. avoiding bioenergically costly reacclimation processes. Indeed, acute temperature increases or decreases of 2.5 °C led to marked differences in oxygen consumption, with metabolic rate changes of 15 and 30 %, respectively. The persistent linear relationship between heart rate and oxygen consumption allowed us to estimate, from the heart rate recorded in free-swimming fish, the entire range of metabolic responses that cod underwent voluntarily while experiencing a thermally stratified water column. The most profound metabolic effect, however, was observed with feeding, when oxygen consumption increased by as much as 80 %, resulting in an estimated 90 % reduction in their subsequent scope for activity.