Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T14:49:13.906Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rhythmic activity of migrating juvenile American eels Anguilla rostrata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

Gail S. Wippelhauser  and
James D. McCleave
Gail S. Wippelhauser
Affiliation:
Migratory Fish Research Institute and Department of Zoology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, U.S.A.
James D. McCleave
Affiliation:
Migratory Fish Research Institute and Department of Zoology, University of Maine, Orono, Maine 04469, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Glass eels of the American eel Anguilla rostrata (Lesueur) utilize selective tidal stream transport, a series of semidiurnal vertical migrations in phase with the tide, to migrate up the Penobscot River estuary, Maine, U.S.A., in the spring. Glass eels, freshly collected during their migration, exhibited rhythmic activity with circatidal periodicities when tested in groups in the presence of a water current under constant conditions in the laboratory. Freshly collected groups of eels which had already completed their migration through tidal water did not exhibit circatidal activity rhythms under the same conditions. The activity rhythms of groups of eels freshly caught in tidal water appeared to be entrained by a 12.5 h cycle of water current reversals, but not by a 10.0 h cycle of current reversals. In other entrainment experiments water collected on flood and ebb tides was alternately added to the experimental tanks every 5.0 h. Under these conditions groups of eels freshly caught in tidal water did not display any rhythmic activity. Only 2 of 100 glass eels, freshly collected from tidal and non-tidal water, which were tested individually in static tanks, exhibited rhythmic activity. The activity rhythms would allow an eel to time its vertical migrations in the estuary despite varying environmental conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , February 1988 , pp. 81 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1988

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, G. P. & Nuttall-Smith, P. B. N., 1974. Shadow cinematography offish larvae. Marine Biology, 28, 51–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bruce, V. G., 1960. Environmental entrainment of circadian rhythms. Symposia on Quantitative Biology, 25, 29–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatfield, C., 1984. The Analysis of Time Series: an Introduction. New York: Chapman and Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowse, H. B., Hall, J. C. & Ringo, J. M., 1987. Circadian and ultradian rhythms in period mutants of Drosphila melanogaster. Behavior Genetics, 17, 19–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enright, J. T., 1976. Resetting a tidal clock: a phase-response curve for Excirolana. In Biological Rhythms in the Marine Environment (ed. Decoursey, P. J.), pp. 103–114. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, R. N., 1976. Comparative studies on the rhythms of juvenile flatfish. In Biological Rhythms in the Marine Environment (ed. Decoursey, P. J.), pp. 199–213. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, R. N., 1982. Recent studies on the biology of intertidal fishes. Oceanography and Marine Biology, an Annual Review, 20, 363–414.Google Scholar
Gibson, R. N., 1984. Hydrostatic pressure and the rhythmic behavior of intertidal marine fishes. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 113, 479–183.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, Walker M., Harden, Jones F. R. & Arnold, G. P. 1978. The movements of plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) tracked in the open sea. Journal du Conseil, 38, 58–86.Google Scholar
Harden, Jones F. R., 1977. Performance and behavior on migration. In Fisheries Mathematics (ed. Steele, J. H.), pp. 145–170. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
McCleave, J. D. & Kleckner, R. C., 1982. Selective tidal stream transport in the estuarine migration of glass eels of the American eel (Anguilla rostrata). Journal du Conseil, 40, 262–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sheldon, M. R. & McCleave, J. D., 1985. Abundance of glass eels of the American eel, Anguilla rostrata, in mid-channel and near shore during estuarine migration. Naturaliste canadien, 112, 425–130.Google Scholar
Veen, J. F. De, 1978. On selective tidal stream transport in the migration of North Sea plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) and other flatfish species. Netherlands Journal of Sea Research, 12, 115–147.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittaker, E. & Robinson, G. 1944. The Calculus of Observations. Glasgow: Blackie & Son.Google Scholar
Wippelhauser, G. S. & McCleave, J. D., 1987. Precision of the behavior of migration juvenile glass eels (Anguilla rostrata). Journal du Conseil, 44, 80–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar