Mobile respirometer and swim flume system to study the ecology and evolution of large fishes and schools of fish in the Great Lakes

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Energy is the currency of life. It is therefore not surprising that biologists expend significant effort in an attempt to quantify the energetic expenditures of various organisms. Doing so is not an easy task, especially for aquatic animals such as fish. The standard approach for assessing the energetics of fish, called respirometry, is to place them in a respirometer to measure oxygen consumption and derive metabolic rate. Water flows in the respirometer can be manipulated to induce different levels of swimming activity which in its own right is useful for evaluating relationships between organismal locomotory capacity and fitness. Metabolic rates (both standard and maximum) vary extensively among individuals (including across life-stages and sexes), populations, and species and are strongly influenced by environmental factors such as water temperature and dissolved oxygen. Because metabolic rate is sensitive to changes in the environment, respirometry has much utility in evaluating the consequences of various anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, toxic chemicals, and habitat degradation. Respirometers can also be used to calibrate electronic tags (e.g., biologgers or biotelemetry devices) that estimate the field energetics of free-swimming fish. This proposal is for a very large state-of-the-art, custom made and mobile fish respirometer-swim flume (capable of swimming large fish and schools of fish at flow rates comparable to the wild, a system of this sort does not exist anywhere in the Great Lakes Basin) that will enable measurement of fish metabolic rates and swimming performance on any Great Lakes fish. This instrument will support current NSERC, Canada Research Chair and Great Lakes Fishery Commission projects by the proposals PI's (n=9, at 4 universities), and provide new opportunities for collaborative, international research that will train many HQP. Research areas this system will support are varied and include (i) fish movement and field energetic studies, (ii) genetic quality and fitness of fishes, (iii) climate change research, (iv) invasion biology, (v) contaminant stressors on fishes, and (vi) species at risk. Because "Healthy Great Lakes" is a strategic priority research area for the University of Windsor, they have committed $100,000.00 to this RTI.