Integrative and Comparative Biology Advance Access originally published online on May 9, 2008
Integrative and Comparative Biology 2008 48(4):539-540; doi:10.1093/icb/icn042
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Book Review |
Environmental Constraints upon Locomotion and Predator-prey Interactions in Aquatic Organisms. Paolo Domenici, Guy Claireaux, and David J. McKenzie, editors.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
University of California at Los Angeles
Correspondence: E-mail: bkot{at}ucla.edu
Environmental Constraints upon Locomotion and Predator-prey Interactions in Aquatic Organisms. Paolo Domenici, Guy Claireaux, and David J. McKenzie, editors.
London: Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society—Biological Sciences. Royal Society Publishing, 2007. 254 pp. ISBN 9780854036530 (paperback), £59.50.
Paolo Domenici, Guy Claireaux, and David J. McKenzie have compiled an excellent set of 12 original research papers and six review articles in a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Series B. Primary goals of this work are to provide a better understanding of how environmental constraints impact ecological performance of aquatic fauna, and to help increase awareness of related global conservation issues. Domenici, Claireaux, and McKenzie emphasize field and laboratory approaches that involve investigations of both swimming animals and the varied freshwater and marine habitats in which these animals live. They point out that: "The protection and sustainable management of all aquatic habitats requires greater understanding of how environmental constraints influence aquatic organisms." They also stress the importance of integrating multiple research disciplines, including ecology, evolution, physiology, biomechanics, behavior, and biological modeling, in order to effectively address conservation issues. Discussing a variety of animals including planktonic copepods (Cyclops scutifer), mosquito fish (Gambusia holbrooki), rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris), these papers collectively contribute a new perspective on locomotion and predator-prey challenges that aquatic animals face in their natural environments.
The papers included are based on presentations given at the session "Environmental constraints upon locomotion and predator-prey interactions in aquatic organisms" during the Annual Main Meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology hosted by the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain from 11–15 July 2005. The articles fall into four categories: mechanical environmental constraints, physiological environmental constraints, interactions with behavior, and future developments. I found some of the papers to be especially interesting and provide some detail about their content.
Following a comprehensive introduction, the first three research papers investigate mechanical environmental constraints and some effects that oceanographic currents and microenvironmental disturbances have on the mortality rates, locomotion, and hydrodynamics of very small swimmers—dinoflagellates and copepods. The next seven articles are both research articles and review papers on swimming behavior and physiological environmental constraints. These feature various freshwater and marine fish species and how their swimming performance is influenced by natural and human-induced changes in the environment. One of the most notable papers is by D. McKenzie and colleagues who investigate responses of the swimming performance of cyprinid fish to pollutants in the environment. They show evidence that some physiological traits associated with swimming performance and metabolic rates may be used as biomarkers of deleterious effects of exposure of fishes to pollutants.
Three research articles near the middle of the volume investigate various environmental interactions with fish behavior. M. Abrahams and coauthors use theoretical models to better understand how increases in environmental factors (e.g., water temperature) in lentic systems influence predatory fishes more significantly than they do in prey fishes. P. Domenici then describes a collaborative study that provides new evidence that hypoxic conditions have direct limiting effects on antipredator behavior in a number of fish species. J. Meager and R. Batty follow with a unique study on fish sensory abilities. They provide evidence that the turbidity of water plays a complex role in the foraging behavior of cod (Gadus morhua). R. Davis and D. Weihs then present a clever new model system that investigates energetic costs of the diving behavior of the northern elephant seal (Mirounga angustirostris). They test how negatively buoyant seals glide to decrease energetic costs during diving. The issue closes with a field study by F. Bailleul and colleagues. They use new designs in satellite-relayed telemetric devices to investigate the impacts of local water temperature on the foraging strategies of the southern elephant seal (Mirounga leonina).
This special issue demonstrates the increasing value of research on natural and anthropogenic constraints that affect aquatic organisms in their natural environments. It is important because it fills a gap of information between the classic literature on animal locomotion and the literature on aquatic environmental science. It creates a new niche of multidisciplinary science that contributes fresh approaches to the conservation of natural ecosystems. It is particularly interesting because a variety of environmental constraints couple with specific animal behaviors to influence the energetic costs of locomotion.
The papers are well-written overall; they include many informative figures. The issue will serve as an excellent reference for professionals interested in research areas related to environmental science and animal behavior. It must be noted that it does not include information on all of the major aquatic groups of living animals throughout the world. As a first survey of its kind, however, it provides a broad representation of some of these groups living in freshwater and marine ecosystems. It is a novel demonstration of how specific areas of animal behavior can be affected by environmental factors. The clear writing style is appropriate for beginning graduate students as well as senior research faculty. I highly recommend it for research scientists, instructors, graduate students, and others interested in the limitations that freshwater and marine environments have on animals that are uniquely adapted for life in water.
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