Calibrating acceleration transmitters to quantify the seasonal energetic costs of activity in lake trout.

Bioenergetics models are powerful tools used to address a range of questions in fish biology. However, these models are rarely informed by free-swimming activity data, introducing error. To quantify the costs of activity in free-swimming fish, calibrations produced from standardized laboratory trials can be applied to estimate energy expenditure from sensor data for specific tags and species.

Using heart rate and acceleration biologgers to estimate winter activity costs in free-swimming largemouth bass.

Winter is a critical period for largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans) with winter severity and duration limiting their population growth at northern latitudes. Unfortunately, we have an incomplete understanding of their winter behaviour and energy use in the wild. More winter-focused research is needed to better understand their annual energy budget, improve bioenergetics models, and establish baselines to assess the impacts of climate warming; however, winter research is challenging due to ice cover.

Thermal constraints on exercise and metabolic performance do not explain the use of dormancy as an overwintering strategy in the cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus).

Winter cold slows ectotherm physiology, potentially constraining activities and ecological opportunities at poleward latitudes. Yet, many fishes are winter-active, facilitated by thermal compensation that improves cold performance. Conversely, winter-dormant fishes (e.

Applied winter biology: threats, conservation and management of biological resources during winter in cold climate regions.

Winter at high latitudes is characterized by low temperatures, dampened light levels and short photoperiods which shape ecological and evolutionary outcomes from cells to populations to ecosystems. Advances in our understanding of winter biological processes (spanning physiology, behaviour and ecology) highlight that biodiversity threats (e.g.

Inactivity and the passive slowing effect of cold on resting metabolism as the primary drivers of energy savings in overwintering fishes.

Winter dormancy is a seasonal survival strategy common among temperate ectotherms, characterized by inactivity, fasting and low metabolic rates. Previous reports of metabolic rate depression (MRD) in winter-dormant ectotherms, including many fishes, may have resulted from confounding influences of temperature-dependent variation in activity on metabolic rate measurements. We hypothesize that, as demonstrated recently in the winter-dormant cunner (Tautogolabrus adspersus), inactivity and the passive physicochemical (Arrhenius) effect of cold on standard metabolic rate (SMR) are the common primary mechanisms underlying the low metabolic rates among winter-dormant fishes.

Conservation physiology and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures have had unanticipated effects on ecosystems and biodiversity. Conservation physiology and its mechanistic underpinnings are well positioned to generate robust data to inform the extent to which the Anthropause has benefited biodiversity through alterations in disturbance-, pollution- and climate change-related emissions. The conservation physiology toolbox includes sensitive biomarkers and tools that can be used both retroactively (e.