Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Optimal Swimming Speed in Head Currents and Effects on Distance Movement of Winter-Migrating Fish.

Brodersen, Jakob LU ; Nilsson, Anders LU orcid ; J, Ammitzbøll ; Hansson, Lars-Anders LU orcid and Brönmark, Christer LU (2008) In PLoS ONE 3(5).
Abstract
Migration is a commonly described phenomenon in nature that is often caused by spatial and temporal differences in habitat quality. However, as migration requires energy, the timing of migration may depend not only on differences in habitat quality, but also on temporal variation in migration costs. Such variation can, for instance, arise from changes in wind or current velocity for migrating birds and fish, respectively. Whereas behavioural responses of birds to such changing environmental conditions have been relatively well described, this is not the case for fish, although fish migrations are both ecologically and economically important. We here use passive and active telemetry to study how winter migrating roach regulate swimming... (More)
Migration is a commonly described phenomenon in nature that is often caused by spatial and temporal differences in habitat quality. However, as migration requires energy, the timing of migration may depend not only on differences in habitat quality, but also on temporal variation in migration costs. Such variation can, for instance, arise from changes in wind or current velocity for migrating birds and fish, respectively. Whereas behavioural responses of birds to such changing environmental conditions have been relatively well described, this is not the case for fish, although fish migrations are both ecologically and economically important. We here use passive and active telemetry to study how winter migrating roach regulate swimming speed and distance travelled per day in response to variations in head current velocity. Furthermore, we provide theoretical predictions on optimal swimming speeds in head currents and relate these to our empirical results. We show that fish migrate farther on days with low current velocity, but travel at a greater ground speed on days with high current velocity. The latter result agrees with our predictions on optimal swimming speed in head currents, but disagrees with previously reported predictions suggesting that fish ground speed should not change with head current velocity. We suggest that this difference is due to different assumptions on fish swimming energetics. We conclude that fish are able to adjust both swimming speed and timing of swimming activity during migration to changes in head current velocity in order to minimize energy use. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
PLoS ONE
volume
3
issue
5
article number
e2156
publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
external identifiers
  • wos:000262172800021
  • scopus:47749150704
  • pmid:18478053
ISSN
1932-6203
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0002156
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9fa18bb0-a64c-4bd0-8f31-6845699c7c29 (old id 1241446)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:08:35
date last changed
2022-03-29 05:50:50
@article{9fa18bb0-a64c-4bd0-8f31-6845699c7c29,
  abstract     = {{Migration is a commonly described phenomenon in nature that is often caused by spatial and temporal differences in habitat quality. However, as migration requires energy, the timing of migration may depend not only on differences in habitat quality, but also on temporal variation in migration costs. Such variation can, for instance, arise from changes in wind or current velocity for migrating birds and fish, respectively. Whereas behavioural responses of birds to such changing environmental conditions have been relatively well described, this is not the case for fish, although fish migrations are both ecologically and economically important. We here use passive and active telemetry to study how winter migrating roach regulate swimming speed and distance travelled per day in response to variations in head current velocity. Furthermore, we provide theoretical predictions on optimal swimming speeds in head currents and relate these to our empirical results. We show that fish migrate farther on days with low current velocity, but travel at a greater ground speed on days with high current velocity. The latter result agrees with our predictions on optimal swimming speed in head currents, but disagrees with previously reported predictions suggesting that fish ground speed should not change with head current velocity. We suggest that this difference is due to different assumptions on fish swimming energetics. We conclude that fish are able to adjust both swimming speed and timing of swimming activity during migration to changes in head current velocity in order to minimize energy use.}},
  author       = {{Brodersen, Jakob and Nilsson, Anders and J, Ammitzbøll and Hansson, Lars-Anders and Brönmark, Christer}},
  issn         = {{1932-6203}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{5}},
  publisher    = {{Public Library of Science (PLoS)}},
  series       = {{PLoS ONE}},
  title        = {{Optimal Swimming Speed in Head Currents and Effects on Distance Movement of Winter-Migrating Fish.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0002156}},
  doi          = {{10.1371/journal.pone.0002156}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}