School of Life and Environmental Sciences A08, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Biol Open. 2024 Aug 15;13(8). doi: 10.1242/bio.060543. Epub 2024 Aug 12.
Performance measures are an important tool to assess the impact of environmental change on animals. In fish, performance is often measured as critical swimming speed (Ucrit), which reflects individual maximal physiological capacities. A drawback of Ucrit is that trials are relatively long (∼30-75 min). Ucrit may therefore not be suitable for several repeated measurements because of the potential for training effects, long recovery periods, and low throughput. Here we test a shorter (∼4-5 min) protocol, "Ucrit fast" (UCfast) in zebrafish (Danio rerio). We show that UCfast and Ucrit have similar, significant repeatabilities within individuals. Unlike Ucrit, repeated UCfast trials did not elicit a training effect. Both UCfast and Ucrit provide the same insights into thermal acclimation, and both provide similar estimates of individual acclimation capacity in doubly acclimated fish. We propose that UCfast is a valid substitute for Ucrit particularly when higher throughput and several repeated measures are necessary.
性能指标是评估环境变化对动物影响的重要工具。在鱼类中，性能通常被测量为临界游泳速度（Ucrit），它反映了个体的最大生理能力。Ucrit 的一个缺点是试验相对较长（约 30-75 分钟）。因此，由于潜在的训练效应、长时间的恢复期和低通量，Ucrit 可能不适合多次重复测量。在这里，我们测试了一种更短的（约 4-5 分钟）方案，即斑马鱼（Danio rerio）中的“Ucrit 快速”（UCfast）。我们表明，UCfast 和 Ucrit 在个体内具有相似的、显著的可重复性。与 Ucrit 不同，重复的 UCfast 试验不会引起训练效应。UCfast 和 Ucrit 都能提供对热驯化的相同见解，并且都能对双驯化鱼的个体适应能力提供相似的估计。我们建议 UCfast 是 Ucrit 的有效替代品，特别是在需要更高通量和多次重复测量时。
