Elsevier

Journal of Thermal Biology

Volume 30, Issue 8, December 2005, Pages 618-622
Journal of Thermal Biology

Effect of salinity and temperature on thermal tolerance of brown shrimp Farfantepenaeus aztecus (Ives) (Crustacea, Penaeidae)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtherbio.2005.09.004Get rights and content

Abstract

The critical thermal maxima (CTMax) of Farfantepenaeus aztecus was not affected significantly by salinity (P>0.05). A direct relationship was obtained between the critical temperature and the acclimation temperature which increased at intervals of 3–5 °C.

The end point of CTMax in F. aztecus was loss of righting response (LRR).

The acclimation response ratio (ARR) for the juveniles of the brown shrimp ranged between 0.20 and 0.80, which agreed with others obtained for crustaceans from tropical and subtropical climates.

The brown shrimp should not be exposed to conditions that cause total disorientation; if this is avoided, it will permit an increase in growth and reduce mortalities in culture populations.

Introduction

The aquatic environment is thermally heterogeneous in space and time. Animals living in changing environments possess physiological and behavioral mechanisms allowing them to live successfully, at least within certain limits. They also have the capacity of resisting extreme temperatures for limited periods, which constitute an expansion of their environmental space (Hutchison and Maness, 1979).

Many species of commercial importance live in lagoon–estuarine habitats that sustain the main fisheries of the continental platform. Among these, the penaeid shrimps are a source of commercial importance (Venkataramiah et al., 1974; Yáñez-Arancibia, 1986).

The penaeid shrimps mature and reproduce in the open sea, the postlarva stages penetrate to the lagoon–estuarine systems where growth occurs until they become juveniles and preadults (Williams, 1960). In these environments the organisms are exposed to daily and seasonal fluctuations of diverse environmental factors, especially salinity and temperature. Shrimps respond to these variations as a highly integrated unit, tolerating those environmental changes (Vernberg and Vernberg, 1972; Venkataramiah et al., 1974; Prosser, 1991).

Salinity and temperature modify the physiological responses of aquatic organisms; these factors in the lagoon–estuarine ecosystems determine distribution and survival. Salinity is a masking factor that modifies numerous physiological responses such as metabolism, growth, life of cycle, nutrition and intra-and inter-specific relationships (Kinne, 1971; Fry, 1971; Venkataramiah et al., 1974).

Temperature is a direct and controlling factor of the aquatic organism's activity and, therefore mobile species including the crustaceans show different behavioral responses which include the selection of a thermal habitat and avoidance of lethal temperatures (Reynolds, 1979; Giattina and Garton, 1982).

All life cycle stages must be considered to respond to thermal acclimation that results in physiological compensatory temperature responses and adaptative resistance changes allowing a thermal niche expansion. Temperature can be a limiting factor in the distribution of an aquatic organism if they are exposed to the resistance zone represented by the critical thermal minima and maxima (Díaz Herrera et al., 1998).

The critical thermal maxima is a characteristic modified by acclimation temperature and therefore, useful in evaluating the thermal requirements of an organism's physiological status (Becker and Genoway, 1979; Paladino et al., 1980; Lutterschmidt and Hutchison, 1997).

The critical thermal maxima (CTMax) was defined by Cowles and Bogert (1944), modified by Lowe and Vance (1955) and standardized by Hutchison (1961). Cox (1974) defined CTMax as follows: “these tolerance measurements as the arithmetic mean of the collective thermal points at which locomotory activity becomes disorganized”. This is when the animal loses its ability to escape from conditions that will promptly lead to its death. When heated from a previous acclimation temperature at a constant rate just fast enough to allow deep body temperatures to follow environmental temperatures without a significant time lag.

The knowledge of the CTMax provides a relevant physiological and ecological index; the brown shrimp in lagoon–estuarine systems may encounter such temperatures either daily and seasonally. CTMax may occur at different temperatures in different species, but the physiological responses are same across a diversity of taxa (Lutterschmidt and Hutchison, 1997). For these reasons critical thermal maxima is an excellent index for evaluating the thermal requirements and physiology of aquatic organisms (Becker and Genoway, 1979; Paladino et al., 1980).

According to Claussen (1977), ARR is defined as ΔCTMax/ΔT or change in the CTMax per change in acclimation temperatures. It can be considered as a reliable measure to denote the physiological response of aquatic organisms to a given change in temperature.

It is important to evaluate the interactions of two or more variables on the functional responses of the aquatic organisms if these variables interact, since these studies provide information about the adaptative and physiological potentialities of the organisms exposed to different environmental factors. In the Gulf of México three endemic species of shrimps, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, Litopenaeus setiferus and Farfantepenaeus duorarum, are distributed. These species have potential for culture; however, basic physiological studies are necessary to implement the culture of these species are few.

The goal of this study was to determine the critical thermal limits and their Acclimation Response Ratio (ARR) of juveniles of brown shrimp F. aztecus exposed to different combinations of temperature and salinity to assess the ability of organisms to adapt to different thermal and salinity regimens in a tropical area of Gulf of México.

Section snippets

Materials and methods

Juveniles of F. aztecus (n=400) were recollected in the Northern part of the Lagoon of Tamiahua, Veracruz, the water temperature was 25 °C and salinity was in the a range of 25–30‰. The shrimps were transported to the laboratory in plastic bags with water from the lagoon and a saturated atmosphere of oxygen. The organisms were placed in a 3000 l reservoir, provided with a biological filter at 25 °C and salinity of 30‰, for 1 week to diminish the stress caused by transport.

From the original stock

Results and discussion

The critical thermal maxima of the shrimps were not changed when salinity was increased from 10 to 30‰, but when acclimation temperature was increased from 20 to 30 °C the thermal tolerance of juveniles was increased by 3–5 °C (Table 1). An analysis of variance indicated that the temperature had a significant effect (P<0.05) on the CTMax but the effect of salinity and the interaction temperature-salinity was not significant (P>0.05). Becker and Genoway (1979), Paladino et al. (1980), and

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