TY - JOUR
T1 - Seasonal variations in the physiological stress response to discrete bouts of aerial exposure in the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea
AU - Cicia, Angela M.
AU - Schlenker, Lela S.
AU - Sulikowski, James A.
AU - Mandelman, John W.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was sanctioned by the UNE's Animal Care and Use Committee (approval number UNE03-2010). We gratefully acknowledge Captains J. Jurek (F/V Mystique Lady ) and C. Felch (F/V Lady Victoria ) for providing the platform for skate collection. We extend our gratitude to all the undergraduate and graduate students of the Sulikowski Lab at UNE (J.W., C.L., B.P, A.C., J.B., S.J., L.E., D.R., J.H., K.C., R.K., E.N., D.C., K.S., and C.P.) for husbandry and key experimental assistance at the MSC. We thank D. Edmunds, E. Payne and rest of the New England Aquarium's Animal Health Department for critical assistance with sample analysis. This project was partially supported by NOAA Fisheries Northeast Region (Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant No. NA08NMF4270418 ) and the New England Aquarium . This manuscript represents MSC contribution number 38.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - Aerial exposure and acute thermal stress have been shown to elicit profound physiological disruptions in obligate water-breathing teleosts. However, no study has investigated these responses in an elasmobranch. To address this, venous blood samples were collected and evaluated from little skates (Leucoraja erinacea) subjected to discrete aerial exposure durations (0, 15, and 50min) coupled with differing abrupt thermal changes (gradient between seawater and air; winter: δT=-3°C; summer: δT=+9°C) in two distinct laboratory studies. In general, blood acid-base properties (e.g. decline in pH; elevation in PCO2) and select metabolites (elevated whole-blood lactate) and electrolytes (elevated plasma K+) were significantly disrupted by aerial exposure, and were most disturbed after skates were exposed to air for 50min. However, the magnitude of the blood acid-base perturbations, metabolic contribution to the resulting blood acidosis, elevations to ionic and metabolic parameters, and delayed mortality were more extreme during the summer study, suggesting that acute thermal stress exacerbates the physiological impairments associated with aerial exposure in little skates. Conversely, a reduced thermal gradient (from seawater to air) may attenuate the magnitude of metabolic and ionic perturbations, resulting in a high physiological threshold for coping with extended aerial exposure.
AB - Aerial exposure and acute thermal stress have been shown to elicit profound physiological disruptions in obligate water-breathing teleosts. However, no study has investigated these responses in an elasmobranch. To address this, venous blood samples were collected and evaluated from little skates (Leucoraja erinacea) subjected to discrete aerial exposure durations (0, 15, and 50min) coupled with differing abrupt thermal changes (gradient between seawater and air; winter: δT=-3°C; summer: δT=+9°C) in two distinct laboratory studies. In general, blood acid-base properties (e.g. decline in pH; elevation in PCO2) and select metabolites (elevated whole-blood lactate) and electrolytes (elevated plasma K+) were significantly disrupted by aerial exposure, and were most disturbed after skates were exposed to air for 50min. However, the magnitude of the blood acid-base perturbations, metabolic contribution to the resulting blood acidosis, elevations to ionic and metabolic parameters, and delayed mortality were more extreme during the summer study, suggesting that acute thermal stress exacerbates the physiological impairments associated with aerial exposure in little skates. Conversely, a reduced thermal gradient (from seawater to air) may attenuate the magnitude of metabolic and ionic perturbations, resulting in a high physiological threshold for coping with extended aerial exposure.
KW - Aerial exposure
KW - Blood acid-base status
KW - Delayed mortality
KW - Rajidae
KW - Thermal stress
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U2 - 10.1016/j.cbpa.2011.06.003
DO - 10.1016/j.cbpa.2011.06.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 21689777
AN - SCOPUS:84860252759
SN - 1095-6433
VL - 162
SP - 130
EP - 138
JO - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - A Molecular and Integrative Physiology
JF - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology - A Molecular and Integrative Physiology
IS - 2
ER -