Session B5 - Breaking the speed limit--comparative sprinting performance of brook trout and brown trout
Location
UMass Amherst
Event Website
http://fishpassage.ecs.umass.edu/Conference2012/
Start Date
6-6-2012 1:30 PM
End Date
6-6-2012 1:50 PM
Description
Sprinting behavior of free-ranging fish has long been thought to exceed that of captive fish. Here we present data from wild-caught brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and brown trout (Salmo trutta), volitionally entering and sprinting against high velocity flows in an open-channel flume. Performance of the two species was nearly identical, attaining absolute speeds of >300 cm/s or 28 bl/s. These speeds far exceed previously published observations for any salmonid species, and contribute to the mounting evidence that commonly accepted estimates of swimming performance are low. Brook trout demonstrated 2 distinct modes in the relationship between swim speed and fatigue time. This was similar to the shift from prolonged to sprint mode described by other authors, but in this case the shift happened at speeds > 19 BL/s, this is the first demonstration of multiple modes of sprint swimming at such high swim speeds. The similarity in performance between species suggests convergent adaptation to lotic environments"”it also suggests that hydraulic barriers to movement may not be effective strategies for selective exclusion of either species. Neither species optimized well for distance maximization, however, indicating that physiological limits alone are poor predictors of swimming performance. By combining distributions of volitional swim speeds with endurance, however, we were able to account for 82 % of the variation in distance traversed for both species.
Session B5 - Breaking the speed limit--comparative sprinting performance of brook trout and brown trout
UMass Amherst
Sprinting behavior of free-ranging fish has long been thought to exceed that of captive fish. Here we present data from wild-caught brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and brown trout (Salmo trutta), volitionally entering and sprinting against high velocity flows in an open-channel flume. Performance of the two species was nearly identical, attaining absolute speeds of >300 cm/s or 28 bl/s. These speeds far exceed previously published observations for any salmonid species, and contribute to the mounting evidence that commonly accepted estimates of swimming performance are low. Brook trout demonstrated 2 distinct modes in the relationship between swim speed and fatigue time. This was similar to the shift from prolonged to sprint mode described by other authors, but in this case the shift happened at speeds > 19 BL/s, this is the first demonstration of multiple modes of sprint swimming at such high swim speeds. The similarity in performance between species suggests convergent adaptation to lotic environments"”it also suggests that hydraulic barriers to movement may not be effective strategies for selective exclusion of either species. Neither species optimized well for distance maximization, however, indicating that physiological limits alone are poor predictors of swimming performance. By combining distributions of volitional swim speeds with endurance, however, we were able to account for 82 % of the variation in distance traversed for both species.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/fishpassage_conference/2012/June6/19
Comments
Dr. Castro-Santos is a Research Ecologist at the S.O. Conte Anadromous Fish Research Center. He has been working on fish passage issues for more than 20 years. He uses an integrated approach, combining novel telemetry and statistical techniques to understand the interplay between hydraulics, physiology, and behavior and how these can function together to provide safe, timely, and effective passage for riverine and migratory species