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Basic concepts relevant to heat transfer in fishes, and their use in measuring the physiological thermoregulatory abilities of tunas

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Aerobic heat production and heat loss via the gills are inexorably linked in all water breathing teleosts except tunas. These processes are decoupled in tunas by the presence of vascular counter-current heat exchangers, and sustained (i.e., steady state) muscle temperatures may exceed water temperature by 10° C or more in larger individuals. The presence of vascular counter-current heat exchangers is not clearly advantageous in all situations, however. Mathematical models predict that tunas could overheat during strenuous activity unless the efficacy of vascular heat exchangers can be reduced, and that they may be activity limited in warmer waters. Tunas may likewise be forced out of potentially usable habitats as they grow because they have to occupy cooler waters. Vascular counter-current heat exchangers also slow rates of heating and cooling. A reduced rate of muscle temperature decrease is clearly advantageous when diving into colder water to chase prey or avoid predators. A reduced rate of heat gain from the environment would be disadvantageous, however, when fish return to the warmer surface waters. When subjected to changes in ambient temperature, tunas cannot defend a specific body temperature and do not thermoregulate in the mammalian sense. Yet when appropriately analyzed, data taken under steady state and non-steady state conditions indicate that tunas are not strictly prisoners of their own thermoconserving mechanisms. They apparently can modify overall efficiency of their vascular counter-current heat exchangers and thus avoid overheating during bouts of strenuous activity, retard cooling after diving into colder water, and rapidly warm their muscles after voluntarily entering warmer water. The exact physiological mechanisms employed remain to be elucidated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Honolulu Laboratory Southwest Fisheries Science Center, National Marine Fisheries Service, NOAA, 2570 Dole St., Honolulu, HI, 96822-2396, U.S.A.

    Richard W. Brill

  2. Physiological Research Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92093, U.S.A.

    Heidi Dewar & Jeffrey B. Graham

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Paper from the International Union of Biological Societies symposium ‘The biology of tunas and billfishes: an examination of life on the knife edge’, organized by Richard W. Brill and Kim N. Holland.

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Brill, R.W., Dewar, H. & Graham, J.B. Basic concepts relevant to heat transfer in fishes, and their use in measuring the physiological thermoregulatory abilities of tunas. Environ Biol Fish 40, 109–124 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002538

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