Swim tunnel respirometry system

我们的研究小组研究了两个主要问题：(1)鱼类如何储存、动员和使用它们的能量储备来支持游泳；(2)它们对运动的正常代谢反应如何被环境污染物、缺氧和水温的变化所改变。我们正在测量游泳过程中代谢燃料是如何为肌肉提供动力的，以及水生环境中有毒物质（工业污染物、人类药物）、缺氧和较高水温是如何影响这些正常过程的。因为游泳的能力对鱼类的生存（捕食者-猎物相互作用）和成功繁殖至关重要，所以对运动肌肉正常运作的代谢过程的详细了解是必不可少的。本申请要求的设备是一个游泳隧道系统（相当于水生动物的跑步机），我们将使用它来测量在水流速度、溶解氧水平和水温控制条件下活动鱼类的代谢。我们将确定这些在鱼细胞内可测量的环境影响——在分子水平上——是否实际上转化为游泳性能的变化——在整个生物体水平上。该设备将允许在实验室中模拟长距离迁徙，例如，了解鲑鱼的运动如何受到其水生环境近期变化（污染，全球变暖）的影响。它将用于培训下一代生物学家如何监测动物的正常代谢过程，并教研究生如何评估野生动物是否受到现代人类活动的干扰。

Our research group investigates two major issues: (1) how fish store, mobilize and use their energy reserves to support swimming, and (2) how their normal metabolic responses to exercise are modified by environmental pollutants, by a lack of oxygen (hypoxia), and by changes in water temperature. We are measuring how metabolic fuels are used to power muscles during swimming, and how the presence of toxic substances in aquatic environments (industrial pollutants, human pharmaceuticals), hypoxia, and higher water temperatures affect these normal processes. Because the ability to swim is absolutely crucial for survival (predator-prey interactions) and successful reproduction in fish, a detailed understanding of the metabolic processes that allow locomotory muscles to function normally is essential. The equipment requested in this application is a swim tunnel system (the equivalent of a treadmill for aquatic animals) which we will use to measure the metabolism of active fish under controlled conditions of water velocity, dissolved oxygen level, and water temperature. We will determine whether these environmental effects measurable inside fish cells - at the molecular level - are actually translated to changes in swimming performance - at the whole organism level. This equipment will allow for simulated long-distance migrations in the laboratory to understand, for example, how salmon locomotion is affected by recent changes in their aquatic environment (pollution, global warming). It will be used to train the next generation of biologists how to monitor normal metabolic processes in animals and to teach graduate students how to assess whether wildlife is disrupted by modern human activities.