Upper thermal limits are 'hard-wired' across body mass but not populations of an estuarine fish.

Climate warming is seeing temperatures breach exceptional thresholds as the frequency and intensity of heat waves increase. Efforts to forecast species vulnerability to climate warming often focus on upper thermal limits threatening survival, overlooking the role of intraspecific variation in determining vulnerability. Using an estuarine fish (black bream, Acanthopagrus butcheri) as a model, we explore how intraspecific variation in body mass and among populations affects upper thermal tolerance.

The mechanistic basis and adaptive significance of cross-tolerance: a 'pre-adaptation' to a changing world?

Protective responses are pivotal in aiding organismal persistence in complex, multi-stressor environments. Multiple-stressor research has traditionally focused on the deleterious effects of exposure to concurrent stressors. However, encountering one stressor can sometimes confer heightened tolerance to a second stressor, a phenomenon termed 'cross-protection'.

Harnessing the potential of cross-protection stressor interactions for conservation: a review.

Conservation becomes increasingly complex as climate change exacerbates the multitude of stressors that organisms face. To meet this challenge, multiple stressor research is rapidly expanding, and the majority of this work has highlighted the deleterious effects of stressor interactions. However, there is a growing body of research documenting cross-protection between stressors, whereby exposure to a priming stressor heightens resilience to a second stressor of a different nature.

Stress history affects heat tolerance in an aquatic ectotherm (Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).

The stress history of an ectotherm may be a pivotal predictor of how they cope with rapid spikes in environmental temperature. An understanding of how stressors in habitats and commercial operations affect ectotherm heat tolerance is urgently required so that management actions can be informed by thermal physiology. We hypothesised that brief exposure to mild stress would heighten tolerance to subsequent heat stress, indicative of a cross-tolerance interaction, whereas exposure to severe stress would reduce heat tolerance, reflecting a cross-susceptibility interaction.

Exercise training does not affect heat tolerance in Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).

The progression of climate warming will expose ectotherms to transient heatwave events and temperatures above their tolerance range at increased frequencies. It is therefore pivotal that we understand species' physiological limits and the capacity for various controls to plastically alter these thresholds. Exercise training could have beneficial impacts on organismal heat tolerance through improvements in cardio-respiratory capacity, but this remains unexplored.

Fire and rain: A systematic review of the impacts of wildfire and associated runoff on aquatic fauna.

Climate and land-use changes are expected to increase the future occurrence of wildfires, with potentially devastating consequences for freshwater species and ecosystems. Wildfires that burn in close proximity to freshwater systems can significantly alter the physicochemical properties of water. Following wildfires and heavy rain, freshwater species must contend with complex combinations of wildfire ash components (nutrients, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and metals), altered light and thermal regimes, and periods of low oxygen that together can lead to mass mortality events.

Exposure to Nitrate Increases Susceptibility to Hypoxia in Fish.

AbstractAquatic hypoxic events are increasing in frequency and intensity as concentrations of nutrients, such as nitrate, continue to rise from human activities. Many fish species can alter their behavior and physiology to cope with drops in oxygen, but these compensatory strategies may be compromised under high levels of nitrate pollution. Hence, we investigated whether exposure to elevated nitrate concentrations affects key behavioral (avoidance and aquatic surface respiration [ASR]) and physiological (hemoglobin and hematocrit levels, ventilation frequency, and burst and prolonged swimming performance) responses of fish to mitigate the impacts of acute hypoxia.

Thermal plasticity of the cardiorespiratory system provides cross-tolerance protection to fish exposed to elevated nitrate.

Exposure to nitrate is toxic to aquatic animals due to the formation of methaemoglobin and a subsequent loss of blood-oxygen carrying capacity. Yet, nitrate toxicity can be modulated by other stressors in the environment, such as elevated temperatures. Acclimation to elevated temperatures has been shown to offset the negative effects of nitrate on whole animal performance in fish, but the mechanisms underlying this cross-tolerance interaction remain unclear.

Double whammy: Nitrate pollution heightens susceptibility to both hypoxia and heat in a freshwater salmonid.

Species persistence in a changing world will depend on how they cope with co-occurring stressors. Stressors can interact in unanticipated ways, where exposure to one stressor may heighten or reduce resilience to another stressor. We examined how a leading threat to aquatic species, nitrate pollution, affects susceptibility to hypoxia and heat stress in a salmonid, the European grayling (Thymallus thymallus).

Thermal acclimation offsets the negative effects of nitrate on aerobic scope and performance.

Rising temperatures are set to imperil freshwater fishes as climate change ensues unless compensatory strategies are employed. However, the presence of additional stressors, such as elevated nitrate concentrations, may affect the efficacy of compensatory responses. Here, juvenile silver perch () were exposed to current-day summer temperatures (28°C) or a future climate-warming scenario (32°C) and simultaneously exposed to one of three ecologically relevant nitrate concentrations (0, 50 or 100 mg l).

Living in polluted waters: A meta-analysis of the effects of nitrate and interactions with other environmental stressors on freshwater taxa.

Nutrient effluents from urban and agricultural inputs have resulted in high concentrations of nitrate in freshwater ecosystems. Exposure to nitrate can be particularly threatening to aquatic organisms, but a quantitative synthesis of the overall effects on amphibians, amphipods and fish is currently unavailable. Moreover, in disturbed ecosystems, organisms are unlikely to face a single stressor in isolation, and interactions among environmental stressors can enhance the negative effects of nitrate on organisms.

Simultaneous exposure to nitrate and low pH reduces the blood oxygen-carrying capacity and functional performance of a freshwater fish.

Human activities present aquatic species with numerous of environmental challenges, including excessive nutrient pollution (nitrate) and altered pH regimes (freshwater acidification). In isolation, elevated nitrate and acidic pH can lower the blood oxygen-carrying capacity of aquatic species and cause corresponding declines in key functional performance traits such as growth and locomotor capacity. These factors may pose considerable physiological challenges to organisms but little is known about their combined effects.

Integrating physiological data with the conservation and management of fishes: a meta-analytical review using the threatened green sturgeon ().

Reversing global declines in the abundance and diversity of fishes is dependent on science-based conservation solutions. A wealth of data exist on the ecophysiological constraints of many fishes, but much of this information is underutilized in recovery plans due to a lack of synthesis. Here, we used the imperiled green sturgeon () as an example of how a quantitative synthesis of physiological data can inform conservation plans, identify knowledge gaps and direct future research actions.

Coping with climatic extremes: Dietary fat content decreased the thermal resilience of barramundi (Lates calcarifer).

Aquatic organisms, including important cultured species, are forced to contend with acute changes in water temperature as the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events worsen. Acute temperature spikes are likely to threaten aquaculture species, but dietary intervention may play an important protective role. Increasing the concentration of macronutrients, for example dietary fat content, may improve the thermal resilience of aquaculture species, however, this remains unexplored.

Negative impacts of elevated nitrate on physiological performance are not exacerbated by low pH.

Multiple environmental stressors, including nutrient effluents (i.e. nitrates [NO]) and altered pH regimes, influence the persistence of freshwater species in anthropogenically disturbed habitats.