Physiological and Behavioural Aspects of Swimming in Sturgeon

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Migration, reproduction, and predator-prey interactions depend heavily on a fish's ability to swim. Swimming efficiency and performance is related to a species' physiology, morphology and behaviour, and the environmental challenges the animal faces (e.g., temperature changes, velocity changes). The focus of my research program is to understand the influence of various abiotic and biotic factors on the swimming capacity and energetics of the sturgeon, a "primitive fish." The rationales for utilizing the sturgeon as a model are many-fold, including: (i) biological, because of its intermediate evolutionary position between sharks and teleosts; (2) their excellent capacity to deal with acute and chronic stressors; (3) commercial, owing to their highly-prized meat and caviar; (4) conservation, as many populations of sturgeon are considered to be critically endangered due to overharvesting and habitat degradation/encroachment. Our recent findings show that sturgeon possess unique morphological and behavioural attributes that affect their swimming patterns (e.g., station-holding) and performance (e.g., length of time swimming). My