Effects of Temperature on Physiological Performance of Lake Trout Stocked in the Great Lakes

Session: 08a. - Restoration of Native Fishes

Issac Hebert, MNRF, [email protected]
Erin Dunlop, ON Ministry of Natural Resources, Trent University, [email protected]

Abstract

Rehabilitation of native fishes aims to match the populations that are being stocked with the environments they inhabit in order to obtain self-sustaining populations. As ambient water temperatures are expected to increase, selecting populations used for stocking should consider their ability to adjust their physiological performance over the range of expected environmental conditions.This study compares the adaptive physiological capacity of 6 lake trout strains that have been stocked in Lake Huron. We evaluate whether patterns in metabolic performance and growth, across a temperature gradient, provide evidence of variation among the 6 strains of lake trout. Lake trout in this study were raised from eggs at the Codrington research hatchery in a common garden design until age 3 and were acclimated to temperatures of 8, 11, 15 and 19?C prior to metabolic experiments. Metabolic performance and growth varied with temperature while little interstrain variation was evident. Metabolic rates were highest at 19?C while growth rates peaked at 11?C and were negative at 19?C. Despite some differences in metabolic performance and growth, there is little evidence to suggest that strains of lake trout will vary in their physiological adaptative potential to climate change in the Great Lakes.

1. Keyword
climate change

2. Keyword
fish

3. Keyword
Lake Huron

4. Additional Keyword
physiology

5. Additional Keyword
species rehabilitation

6. Additional Keyword
conservation