Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles
Shoaling Reduces Metabolic Rate in a Gregarious Coral Reef Fish Species
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2016
Publication Title
Journal of Experimental Biology
Keywords
Calming effect, Metabolism, Body condition, Respirometry, Energetics, Chromis viridis
ISSN
0022-0949
Volume
219
First Page
2802
Last Page
2805
Abstract
Many animals live in groups because of the potential benefits associated with defense and foraging. Group living may also induce a ‘calming effect’ on individuals, reducing overall metabolic demand. This effect could occur by minimising the need for individual vigilance and reducing stress through social buffering. However, this effect has proved difficult to quantify. We examined the effect of shoaling on metabolism and body condition in the gregarious damselfish Chromis viridis. Using a novel respirometry methodology for social species, we found that the presence of shoal-mate visual and olfactory cues led to a reduction in the minimum metabolic rate of individuals. Fish held in isolation for 1 week also exhibited a reduction in body condition when compared with those held in shoals. These results indicate that social isolation as a result of environmental disturbance could have physiological consequences for gregarious species.
Additional Comments
NERC fellowship #: NE/J019100/1
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
NSUWorks Citation
Lauren E. Nadler, Shaun S. Killen, Eva C. McClure, Philip L. Munday, and Mark I. McCormick. 2016. Shoaling Reduces Metabolic Rate in a Gregarious Coral Reef Fish Species .Journal of Experimental Biology : 2802 -2805. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_facarticles/1105.
ORCID ID
0000-0001-8225-8344
DOI
10.1242/jeb.139493
Comments
© 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properly attributed.