spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

First published online December 16, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 50-55 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.019778
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Related articles in JEB
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Booth, D. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by Booth, D. T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Swimming for your life: locomotor effort and oxygen consumption during the green turtle (Chelonia mydas) hatchling frenzy

David T. Booth

The University of Queensland, Physiological Ecology Group, School of Integrative Biology, Qld 4072, Australia

e-mail: d.booth{at}uq.edu.au

Accepted 24 October 2008

Swimming effort and oxygen consumption of newly emerged green turtle Chelonia mydas hatchlings was measured simultaneously and continuously for the first 18 h of swimming after hatchlings entered the water. Oxygen consumption was tightly correlated to swimming effort during the first 12 h of swimming indicating that swimming is powered predominantly by aerobic metabolism. The patterns of swimming effort and oxygen consumption could be divided into three distinct phases: (1) the rapid fatigue phase from 0 to 2 h when the mean swim thrust decreased from 45 to 30 mN and oxygen consumption decreased from 33 to 18 ml h–1; (2) the slow fatigue phase from 2 to 12 h when the mean swim thrust decreased from 30 to 22 mN and oxygen consumption decreased from 18 to 10 ml h–1; and (3) the sustained effort phase from 12 to 18 h when mean swim thrust averaged 22 mN and oxygen consumption averaged 10 ml h–1. The decrease in mean swim thrust was caused by a combination of a decrease in front flipper stroke rate during a power stroking bout, a decrease in mean maximum thrust during a power stroking bout and a decrease in the proportion of time spent power stroking. Hence hatchlings maximise their swimming thrust as soon as they enter the water, a time when a fast swimming speed will maximise the chance of surviving the gauntlet of predators inhabiting the shallow fringing reef before reaching the relative safety of deeper water.

Key words: aerobic metabolism, swimming, sea turtle, performance, oxygen consumption


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?

Related articles in JEB:

COST OF HATCHLING TURTLES' DASH FOR FREEDOM
Kathryn Knight
JEB 2009 212: i. [Full Text]  



This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 J. Exp. Biol.Home page
K. Knight
COST OF HATCHLING TURTLES' DASH FOR FREEDOM
J. Exp. Biol., January 1, 2009; 212(1): i - ii.
[Full Text] [PDF]


© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2009