Global climate changes have led to a depletion in omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) in marine phytoplankton that—with food web transfers—could negatively impact fish performance. The aim ...of this study was to assess the effect of a reduction in the dietary availability of n-3 PUFA on growth performance, organ allometry, and fatty acid composition in juvenile European sea bass (
Dicentrarchus labrax
) raised at two different temperatures: 15 °C (natural conditions) and 20 °C (global warming scenario). Fish were fed for 5 months with two isoenergetic and isoproteic diets: a reference diet (RD; 1.65% n-3 PUFA on a dry matter basis, DM) used as a proxy of trophic networks where n-3 PUFA were plentiful, and a lower n-3 PUFA diet (LD; 0.73% n-3 PUFA on DM) designed to mimic the expected decrease in n-3 PUFA sources resulting from global climate changes. Results showed decreasing growth rates and slight changes in the muscle polar lipid profile in LD-fed sea bass juveniles, whereas neutral lipids were more affected over the long term. The relative masses of the heart and gastrointestinal system were higher at 20 °C, while liver mass was higher at 15 °C in LD-fed juveniles. However, the mesenteric fat of RD-fed juveniles was higher at 15 °C. Altogether the results suggest that sea bass juveniles are able to implement physiological mechanisms to cope with a decrease in dietary n-3 PUFA and are able to improve growth at the higher temperature, even with a decreased availability of n-3 PUFA. The temperature-driven increase in growth is also observed under the restricted n-3 PUFA diet, and this is accompanied by significant effects on organ allometry and FA profiles. This may indicate the presence of some metabolic costs that remain to be evaluated, but which illustrate that the combination of warming temperatures and n-3 PUFA depletion has significant effects on life history traits.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the combined effects of thermal acclimation and n-3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (n-3 HUFA) content of the food source on the aerobic capacities of fish ...in a thermal changing environment. The model used was the golden grey mullet Liza aurata, a species of high ecological importance in temperate coastal areas. For four months, fish were exposed to two food sources with contrasting n-3 HUFA contents (4.8% ecosapentaenoic acid EPA + docosahexaenoic acid DHA on the dry matter DM basis vs. 0.2% EPA+DHA on DM) combined with two acclimation temperatures (12°C vs. 20°C). The four experimental conditions were LH12, LH20, HH12 and HH20. Each group was then submitted to a thermal challenge consisting of successive exposures to five temperatures (9°C, 12°C, 16°C, 20°C, 24°C). At each temperature, the maximal and minimal metabolic rates, metabolic scope, and the maximum swimming speed were measured. Results showed that the cost of maintenance of basal metabolic activities was particularly higher when n-3 HUFA food content was low. Moreover, fish exposed to high acclimation temperature combined with a low n-3 HUFA dietary level (LH20) exhibited a higher aerobic scope, as well as a greater expenditure of energy to reach the same maximum swimming speed as other groups. This suggested a reduction of the amount of energy available to perform other physiological functions. This study is the first to show that the impact of lowering n-3 HUFA food content is exacerbated for fish previously acclimated to a warmer environment. It raises the question of the consequences of longer and warmer summers that have already been recorded and are still expected in temperate areas, as well as the pertinence of the lowering n-3 HUFA availability in the food web expected with global change, as a factor affecting marine organisms and communities.
•High levels of incorporation of tannin up to 30g tanninkg−1 feed affect cumulative feed intake and growth in European seabass juveniles.•Modulation of apparent digestibility coefficient of protein ...occurs at a threshold of 10g tanninkg−1 diet.•Tannin supplementation at the highest concentrations tested lowers carcass lipid and energy.
Plant-based products in fish diets are valuable protein alternatives to fishmeal for the aquafeed industry. Many plant feed ingredients contain polyphenolic compounds, including tannins, which can have beneficial or adverse effects. The tolerable threshold of ingested tannins is unknown for marine carnivorous fishes. We studied the effects of tannic acid (TA) supplementation to the diet of juvenile European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax) by measuring growth, feed utilization and digestibility, and carcass composition. We randomly allocated groups of fish (initial mean body weight of 10.2±0.7g; n=40 fish per tank) to 12 replicate cylindrical-conical tanks (three per treatment). The fish were assigned to one of four dietary treatments for five weeks: control diet (C) with tannin-free protein sources (mostly fishmeal as the base diet, containing 55.7% dry matter (DM) crude protein, gross energy 22.3kJg−1 DM) and three experimental diets supplemented with 10, 20, or 30gTAkg−1 (called TA1, TA2, and TA3, respectively). Tannin ingestion resulted in significantly decreased cumulative feed intake, growth, feed and protein efficiencies, apparent digestibility coefficients, hepatosomatic index, and carcass lipids. The protein digestibility in fish fed the 10gkg−1 tannin-containing diet was significantly lower than that in fish fed the control diet. This threshold should be taken into account when using novel terrestrial and aquatic plant ingredients for temperate marine fishes.
The aim of this study was to determine biofloc contributions to the antioxidant status and lipid nutrition of broodstock of Litopenaeus stylirostris in relationship with their reproductive ...performance and the health of larvae produced. Shrimp broodstock reared with BioFloc Technology (BFT) compared to Clear Water (CW) exhibited a higher health status with (i) a better final survival rate during the reproduction period (52.6% in CW against 79.8% in BFT); (ii) higher glutathione level (GSH) and total antioxidant status (TAS); (iii) reduced oxidized/reduced glutathione ratio; and (iv) a higher spawning rate and frequency as well as higher gonado-somatic index and number of spawned eggs. Finally, larvae from broodstock from BFT exhibited higher survival rates at the Zoe 2 (+37%) and Post Larvae 1 (+51%) stages when compared with those from females from CW treatment. The improved reproductive performance of the broodstock and higher larvae survival rate resulting from BFT treatment may be linked to the dietary supplement obtained by the shrimp from natural productivity during BFT rearing. Indeed, our study confirms that biofloc particulates represent a potential source of dietary glutathione and a significant source of lipids, particularly essential phospholipids and n−3 highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) for shrimps. Thus, broodstock from BFT treatment accumulated phospholipids, n−3 HUFA and arachidonic acid, which are necessary for vitellogenesis, embryogenesis and pre-feeding larval development. The predominant essential fatty acids, arachidonic acid (ARA), eicopentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), had levels in the eggs that were, respectively, 2.5, 2.8 and 3 fold higher for BFT compared to the CW treatment.
Today, the influence of biofloc technology on shrimp broodstock is not described enough and no information was available on the larvae quality.
Moreover, two key pieces of new information emerge from the present study. Firstly, biofloc is a source of further dietary lipids that can act as energetic substrates, but also as a source of phospholipids and essential fatty acids necessary to sustain reproduction, embryonic and larval development. Second, improving the reproduction of the broodstock also leads to an improvement in the quality of the larvae.
We think that our research is new and important to increase knowledge on biofloc topic. We believe that the paper will contribute to the development of more efficient and therefore more sustainable systems.
•BioFloc Technology (BFT) compared to Clear Water (CW) breeding improved the antioxidant status of shrimps.•BFT enhanced the reproductive performance of broodstock and shrimp larvae survival.•Biofloc particulates represent a potential source of dietary glutathione and a significant source of lipids.
Tropical tunas are largely consumed worldwide, providing major nutritional benefits to humans, but also representing the main exposure to methylmercury, a potent neurotoxin that biomagnifies along ...food webs. The combination of ecological tracers (nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes, δ15N and δ13C) to mercury concentrations in tunas is scarce yet crucial to better characterize the influence of tuna foraging ecology on mercury exposure and bioaccumulation. Given the difficulties to get modern and historical tuna samples, analyses have to be done on available and unique samples. However, δ13C values are often analysed on lipid-free samples to avoid bias related to lipid content. While lipid extraction with non-polar solvents is known to have no effect on δ15N values, its impact on mercury concentrations is still unclear. We used white muscle tissues of three tropical tuna species to evaluate the efficiency and repeatability of different lipid extraction protocols commonly used in δ13C and δ15N analysis. Dichloromethane was more efficient than cyclohexane in extracting lipids in tuna muscle, while the automated method appeared more efficient but as repeatable as the manual method. Lipid extraction with dichloromethane had no effect on mercury concentrations. This may result from i) the affinity of methylmercury to proteins in tuna flesh, ii) the low lipid content in tropical tuna muscle samples, and iii) the non-polar nature of dichloromethane. Our study suggests that lipid-free samples, usually prepared for tropical tuna foraging ecology research, can be used equivalently to bulk samples to document in parallel mercury concentrations at a global scale.
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•Scarcity of tuna samples makes essential to get the most out of a single sample.•Dichloromethane is more efficient than cyclohexane to extract lipids.•Dichloromethane extraction has no effect on Hg levels.•Bulk and lipid-free tropical tuna samples can be used jointly to infer Hg levels.
The better understanding of how intestinal microbiota interacts with fish health is one of the key to sustainable aquaculture development. The present experiment aimed at correlating active ...microbiota associated to intestinal mucosa with Specific Growth Rate (SGR) and Hypoxia Resistance Time (HRT) in European sea bass individuals submitted to different nutritional histories: the fish were fed either standard or unbalanced diets at first feeding, and then mixed before repeating the dietary challenge in a common garden approach at the juvenile stage.
A diet deficient in essential fatty acids (LH) lowered both SGR and HRT in sea bass, especially when the deficiency was already applied at first feeding. A protein-deficient diet with high starch supply (HG) reduced SGR to a lesser extent than LH, but it did not affect HRT. In overall average, 94 % of pyrosequencing reads corresponded to Proteobacteria, and the differences in Operational Taxonomy Units (OTUs) composition were mildly significant between experimental groups, mainly due to high individual variability. The highest and the lowest Bray-Curtis indices of intra-group similarity were observed in the two groups fed standard starter diet, and then mixed before the final dietary challenge with fish already exposed to the nutritional deficiency at first feeding (0.60 and 0.42 with diets HG and LH, respectively). Most noticeably, the median percentage of Escherichia-Shigella OTU_1 was less in the group LH with standard starter diet. Disregarding the nutritional history of each individual, strong correlation appeared between (1) OTU richness and SGR, and (2) dominance index and HRT. The two physiological traits correlated also with the relative abundance of distinct OTUs (positive correlations: Pseudomonas sp. OTU_3 and Herbaspirillum sp. OTU_10 with SGR, Paracoccus sp. OTU_4 and Vibrio sp. OTU_7 with HRT; negative correlation: Rhizobium sp. OTU_9 with HRT).
In sea bass, gut microbiota characteristics and physiological traits of individuals are linked together, interfering with nutritional history, and resulting in high variability among individual microbiota. Many samples and tank replicates seem necessary to further investigate the effect of experimental treatments on gut microbiota composition, and to test the hypothesis whether microbiotypes may be delineated in fish.
•Exploration of energy density sources of variability: species, season, region, size.•Relationships between dry mass content and ED are strong but species specific.•Larger length, mass and ED at age ...in the English Channel than in the Bay of Biscay.•Sardine display larger energy reserves than anchovy.•Larger reserves are likely in link with larger spawning or maintenance costs.•A strong scaling of ED with size with a dome shape pattern for sardine.•Decrease of ED with size is discussed in link with feeding and spawning behaviours.
There is a growing interest in monitoring body condition of marine organisms in the context of the ecosystem approach to fisheries and global change. Fish condition is under the influence of environmental variability on seasonal scale, but also on longer timescales. It represents a good indicator of habitat quality or individual fitness, and is also a relevant parameter to evaluate energy transfer through the trophic chain. However, the sources of variability in fish condition need to be accurately understood and the significance of existing indices has to be correctly assessed. Here, we measured the energy density, a precise and global indicator of fish bioenergetic condition, for anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus) and sardine (Sardina pilchardus) in the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel, based on an extensive sampling design in 2014. First, we investigated the well-documented relationship between percent dry mass and energy density, and showed that such relationship is species specific. Second, we observed distinct patterns in bioenergetic condition between anchovy and sardine. Both species display similar minimum values at size or age but maximum are significantly higher for sardine, reflecting a higher energy storage capacity that scales more strongly with size. Third, we confirmed the large seasonal variability in energy density of both species. In the Bay of Biscay, energy density values for anchovy and sardine (age 1+) are 5.7 and 5.9 kJ g−1 (wet weight) in spring and 6.8 and 7.9 kJ g−1 in autumn, respectively. Our results revealed that fish from the English Channel display significantly higher energy density values in autumn (9.8 kJ g−1 for anchovy and 10.5 kJ g−1 for sardine) than those from the Bay of Biscay. When combined with size and weight at age it appears clearly that, after age 1, fish from the northern region display larger growth and energy reserves. This likely results from a higher zooplankton productivity in the English Channel or/and a selection pressure towards faster growing and faster reserve building individuals, to be able to survive a longer winter than in the Bay of Biscay. Finally, we described a dome shaped evolution of energy density with body size in case of sardine. Increase with size has been well documented but not the decrease at largest sizes. Several mechanisms may explain such a pattern, i.e. increasing investment in spawning, shift in diet or a metabolic trade-off between temperature and food availability, with regard to maintenance requirements.
In this study, we hypothesised that a reduction in n-3 HUFA availability for higher consumers, as expected with global change, would negatively impact the physiological performances of fish. The aim ...was to experimentally evaluate the effect of n-3 HUFA dietary content on cardio-respiratory performances of the golden grey mullet (Liza aurata), a microalgae grazer of high ecological importance in European coastal areas. These performances were evaluated in terms of critical swimming speed Ucᵣᵢₜ, associated oxygen consumption MO₂, post-exercise oxygen consumption and calcium fluxes in cardiomyocytes. Two replicated groups of fish were fed on a rich (standard diet, SD diet: 1.2 % n-3 HUFA on dry matter basis, DMB) or a poor n-3 HUFA (low n-3 HUFA diet, LD diet: 0.2 % n-3 HUFA on DMB) diet during 5 months and were called SD and LD groups, respectively. The results showed that the LD diet reduced growth rate as well as the aerobic capacity of L. aurata at 20 °C, suggesting that fish may have to save energy by modifying the proportion of energy allocated to energy-demanding activities, such as digestion or feeding. In addition, this LD diet induced higher levels of haematocrit and plasma osmolality, indicating a stress response at the second and third levels in that group. However, the LD diet caused a massive increase in swimming efficiency. This should improve the capacity of L. aurata to migrate and to forage over a wide area. In turn, these could then compensate for the reduction in growth rate and aerobic metabolism.