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Low‐Temperature Tolerance of American Plaice in Relation to Declines in Abundance
Author(s) -
Morgan M. Joanne
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1992)121<0399:ltoapi>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - flatfish , acclimatization , abundance (ecology) , fishery , fish <actinopterygii> , biology , population , cold tolerance , biomass (ecology) , zoology , ecology , botany , demography , sociology
I examined the short‐ and long‐term low‐temperature tolerance of American plaice Hippoglossoides platessoides , a coldwater flatfish species, in an attempt to relate temperature tolerance in the laboratory to declines in the speciesˈ abundance following years with unusually cold water temperatures. American plaice were very tolerant of rapid declines in temperature over 96 h, and no fish died when placed in temperatures of less than –1.30°C until acclimation temperatures were above 10°C. They also survived 77 d at –1.40°C; although they were more active at that temperature than fish at 0.18°C, they did not eat, and they lost weight. The observed declines in population biomass may have been caused by starvation rather than by cold itself.