Metabolic cold adaptation of polar fish based on measurements of aerobic oxygen consumption: fact or artefact? Artefact!

TY - JOUR

T1 - Metabolic cold adaptation of polar fish based on measurements of aerobic oxygen consumption: fact or artefact? Artefact!

AU - Steffensen, John Fleng

N1 - Keywords: Acclimatization; Animals; Cold Climate; Fishes; Models, Biological; Oxygen Consumption

PY - 2002

Y1 - 2002

N2 - Whether metabolic cold adaptation in polar fish, based on measurements of aerobic standard metabolic rate, is a fact or an artefact has been a dispute since Holeton asked the question in 1974. So far polar fish had been considered to be metabolically cold adapted because they were reported to have a considerably elevated resting oxygen consumption, or standard metabolic rate, compared with oxygen consumption values of tropical or temperate fish extrapolated to similar low polar temperatures. Recent experiments on arctic and Antarctic fish, however, do not show elevated resting aerobic oxygen consumption values, or standard metabolic rate, and hence it is concluded that that metabolic cold adaptation in the traditional sense is an artefact.

AB - Whether metabolic cold adaptation in polar fish, based on measurements of aerobic standard metabolic rate, is a fact or an artefact has been a dispute since Holeton asked the question in 1974. So far polar fish had been considered to be metabolically cold adapted because they were reported to have a considerably elevated resting oxygen consumption, or standard metabolic rate, compared with oxygen consumption values of tropical or temperate fish extrapolated to similar low polar temperatures. Recent experiments on arctic and Antarctic fish, however, do not show elevated resting aerobic oxygen consumption values, or standard metabolic rate, and hence it is concluded that that metabolic cold adaptation in the traditional sense is an artefact.

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 12095863

SN - 1095-6433

VL - 132

SP - 789

EP - 795

JO - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -Part A : Molecular and Integrative Physiology

JF - Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -Part A : Molecular and Integrative Physiology

IS - 4

ER -