QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by BATTY, R. S. Articles by BLAXTER, J. H. S. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by BATTY, R. S. Articles by BLAXTER, J. H. S.

Journal of Experimental Biology 170,187-201 (1992)
Published by Company of Biologists 1992

The Effect of Temperature on the Burst Swimming Performance of Fish Larvae

R. S. BATTY ¹ and J. H. S. BLAXTER ¹

¹ Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, PO Box 3, Oban, Argyll, PA34 4AD, Scotland

Newly hatched herring and plaice larvae were stimulated by probes to make C-start escape responses at temperatures between 5 and 15 °C. The responses and the subsequent burst-speed swimming were recorded and analysed using high-speed video at 400 frames s^-1. The muscle contraction time of the initial C-start was temperature-dependent, ranging from 22-33 ms at 5°C to 17-21 ms at 15°C. Immediately following the C-start, tail-beat frequency ranged from 18s^-1 at 5°C to 35 s^-1 at 15°C. Tail-beat amplitude, equivalent to 0.4-0.6 of a body length (L), and stride length, about 0.5 L, were not temperature-dependent. The escape speed ranged from 8 Ls^-1 at 5°C to 15 Ls^-1 at 15 °C. These results and those of other workers can be described by the equation:

f=100e^-99/(t+29.5)L^-0.266,

where f is tail-beat frequency, t is temperature and L is length.

Key words: fish larvae, locomotion, escape behaviour, C-starts, temperature, herring, Clupea harengus, plaice, Pleuronectes platessa

Accepted on May 27, 1992

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. H. Lenz, A. E. Hower, and D. K. Hartline Temperature Compensation in the Escape Response of a Marine Copepod, Calanus finmarchicus (Crustacea) Biol. Bull., August 1, 2005; 209(1): 75 - 85. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. Budick and D. O'Malley Locomotor repertoire of the larval zebrafish: swimming, turning and prey capture J. Exp. Biol., January 9, 2000; 203(17): 2565 - 2579. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P Domenici, R. Batty, T Simila, and E Ogam Killer whales (Orcinus orca) feeding on schooling herring (Clupea harengus) using underwater tail-slaps: kinematic analyses of field observations J. Exp. Biol., January 1, 2000; 203(2): 283 - 294. [Abstract] [PDF]