Juvenile Antarctic rockcod (Trematomus bernacchii) are physiologically robust to CO2-acidified seawater [RESEARCH ARTICLE]

We examined cardiorespiratory physiology, including heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output and ventilation rate, whole organism metabolism via oxygen consumption rate and sub-organismal aerobic capacity by citrate synthase enzyme activity. Juvenile fish showed an increase in ventilation rate under high PCO2 compared with ambient PCO2, whereas cardiac performance, oxygen consumption and citrate synthase activity were not significantly affected by elevated PCO2. Acclimation time had a significant effect on ventilation rate, stroke volume, cardiac output and citrate synthase activity, such that all metrics increased over the 4 week exposure period. These results suggest that juvenile emerald rockcod are robust to near-future increases in OA and may have the capacity to adjust for future increases in PCO2 by increasing acid-base compensation through increased ventilation.

Source: Journal of Experimental Biology - April 20, 2016 Category: Biology Authors: Davis, B. E., Miller, N. A., Flynn, E. E., Todgham, A. E. Tags: RESEARCH ARTICLE Source Type: research