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Reed_Brodnik_Thesis_SP15.pdf (531.42 KB)

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Impacts of Water Warming on the Physiology and Life-History of a Tropical Freshwater Fish

Brodnik, Reed Michael
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0711-6826
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429637964

Abstract Details

2015, Master of Science, Ohio State University, Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology.
Rapid human-driven environmental change, which is affecting nearly every ecosystem worldwide, holds great potential to negatively affect biodiversity by exposing populations to evolutionarily novel environmental conditions. Faced with a rapidly changing environment, individuals and populations will disperse, adapt, acclimate, or go extinct. Specifically, climate change via water warming holds great potential to affect aquatic organisms through its effects on individual energy budgets. Lake Tanganyika, an East African Rift Lake that supports a diverse and highly endemic fish assemblage, has been warming at an unprecedented rate during the past century and is expected to continue to warm over the next century. Herein, I use a controlled laboratory experiment to assess the acclimation potential of the endemic Lake Tanganyika cichlid, Julidochromis ornatus, to chronic elevated temperatures that are expected to occur by the start of the next century. Using measures of metabolic rate, somatic growth, and reproductive life history, I found that J. ornatus may not be able to cope with expected warming through acclimation occurring during the adult life stage. When compared to individuals exposed to the current Lake Tanganyika temperature of 25°C in a control treatment, adults exposed to 29°C for ~6 mos exhibited elevated routine metabolic rates, reduced somatic growth (in terms of mass but not length), and decreased reproductive rates (number of broods produced per breeding pair per day). These findings suggest that J. ornatus adults do not exhibit the capacity for metabolic or reproductive acclimation. Thus, unless J. ornatus, and other fishes like it, have the potential for developmental or transgenerational acclimation, the future persistence of this species will depend on either its adaptive potential, or its ability to disperse to more suitable thermal habitat.
Stuart Ludsin, Dr. (Advisor)
Marschall Elizabeth, Dr. (Committee Member)
Hamilton Ian , Dr. (Committee Member)
Gray Suzanne , Dr. (Committee Member)
59 p.
Biology; Climate Change; Environmental Science; Evolution and Development; Freshwater Ecology; Physiology; Wildlife Conservation
aquatic ecology; climate change; fish biology; tropical fish; water warming; phenotypic plasticity; experimental biology; physiology; life history

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Brodnik, R. M. (2015). Impacts of Water Warming on the Physiology and Life-History of a Tropical Freshwater Fish [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429637964

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Brodnik, Reed. Impacts of Water Warming on the Physiology and Life-History of a Tropical Freshwater Fish. 2015. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429637964.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Brodnik, Reed. "Impacts of Water Warming on the Physiology and Life-History of a Tropical Freshwater Fish." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1429637964

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1429637964
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