Thermal effects on fish ecology

Product Type: Book, Pages in

Year: 1976

Author(s): Coutant, C

Suggested Citation:
Coutant, C. 1976. Thermal effects on fish ecology. In: . Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering. NY: Gordon and Breach Publishers. p. 891-896.

Abstract

This publication describes the effects of temperature of fish ecology. It is part of the self-study course for learning the uses of the SNTEMP and SSTEMP models. Abstract: Of all the environmental factors that influence aquatic organisms, temperature is the most all-pervasive. There is always an environmental temperature while other factors may or may not be present to exert their effects. Fish are, for all practical purposes, thermal conformers, or obligate poikilotherms. That is, they are able to exert little significant influence on maintaining a certain body temperature by specialized metabolic or behavioral means. Their body temperature thus fluctuates nearly in concert with the temperature of their aquatic medium (although particularly large, actively-moving fish such as tuna have deep muscle temperatures slightly higher than the water). Intimate contact at the gills of body fluids with the outside water and the high specific heat of water provide a very efficient heat exchanger that insures this near identity of internal and external temperatures.