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First published online November 19, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 4254-4261 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.005835
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Temperature effects on metabolic rate of juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna Thunnus orientalis

Jason M. Blank1,*, Jeffery M. Morrissette1, Charles J. Farwell2, Matthew Price2, Robert J. Schallert2 and Barbara A. Block1

1 Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA 93950, USA
2 Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA 93940, USA

* Author for correspondence present address: Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 321 Steinhaus Hall, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697-2525, USA (e-mail: jblank{at}uci.edu)

Accepted 19 September 2007

Pacific bluefin tuna inhabit a wide range of thermal environments across the Pacific ocean. To examine how metabolism varies across this thermal range, we studied the effect of ambient water temperature on metabolic rate of juvenile Pacific bluefin tuna, Thunnus thynnus, swimming in a swim tunnel. Rate of oxygen consumption (MO2) was measured at ambient temperatures of 8–25°C and swimming speeds of 0.75–1.75 body lengths (BL) s–1. Pacific bluefin swimming at 1 BL s–1 per second exhibited a U-shaped curve of metabolic rate vs ambient temperature, with a thermal minimum zone between 15°C to 20°C. Minimum MO2 of 175±29 mg kg–1 h–1 was recorded at 15°C, while both cold and warm temperatures resulted in increased metabolic rates of 331±62 mg kg–1 h–1 at 8°C and 256±19 mg kg–1 h–1 at 25°C. Tailbeat frequencies were negatively correlated with ambient temperature. Additional experiments indicated that the increase in MO2 at low temperature occurred only at low swimming speeds. Ambient water temperature data from electronic tags implanted in wild fish indicate that Pacific bluefin of similar size to the experimental fish used in the swim tunnel spend most of their time in ambient temperatures in the metabolic thermal minimum zone.

Key words: endothermy, metabolic rate, temperature, thermoregulation, tuna


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 Proc R Soc BHome page
T.D Clark, B.D Taylor, R.S Seymour, D Ellis, J Buchanan, Q.P Fitzgibbon, and P.B Frappell
Moving with the beat: heart rate and visceral temperature of free-swimming and feeding bluefin tuna
Proc R Soc B, December 22, 2008; 275(1653): 2841 - 2850.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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