Theme: Physiological and Behavioural Ecology of Marine Organisms
Glasgow has a long history of basic research into the biology of aquatic animals. We have particular expertise in fish, seabirds and marine mammals. We also have great strength in quantitative biology, applied to a wide range of topics in marine ecology.
Temperature preference
Current research in this area includes how variation in energetic demand and allocation within species are linked with social behaviours, foraging and predator avoidance, life-history strategies, and responses to environmental stress (e.g. changes in temperature or oxygen availability). This work provides basic knowledge of ecology but also has a range of applications including informing fisheries management, understanding the impacts of invasive species, and studying the effects of environmental change.
Selected publications
- Marras, S., Killen, S. S., Lindström, J., McKenzie, D. J., Steffensen, J. F., and Domenici, P. (2014) Fish swimming in schools save energy regardless of their spatial position. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology . ISSN 0340-5443 (doi:10.1007/s00265-014-1834-4)(Early Online Publication)
- Killen, S. S. (2014) Growth trajectory influences temperature preference in fish through an effect on metabolic rate. Journal of Animal Ecology, 83 (6). pp. 1513-1522. ISSN 0021-8790 (doi:10.1111/1365-2656.12244)
- Killen, S. S., Marras, S., and McKenzie, D. J. (2014) Fast growers sprint slower: effects of food deprivation and re-feeding on sprint swimming performance in individual juvenile European sea bass. Journal of Experimental Biology, 217 (6). pp. 859-865. ISSN 0022-0949(doi:10.1242/jeb.097899)
- Killen, S.S., Marras, S., Metcalfe, N.B., McKenzie, D.J., and Domenici, P. (2013) Environmental stressors alter relationships between physiology and behaviour. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 28 (11). pp. 651-658. ISSN 0169-5347 (doi:10.1016/j.tree.2013.05.005)
Marine mammal carcasses
An example of a piece of basic ecological research is a project on the fate of marine mammal carcasses. Despite these being a large and highly predictable source of food, their importance in the coastal environment has hardly been studied.
While this started as a pure blue-skies piece of research it is now becoming clear that marine mammal carrion could be important to threatened gull species, which are currently dependent on discarded fish from trawlers (a source that is due to disappear due to changes in EU policy).
Coral reefs
Coral reefs marine represent one of the most valuable sources of biodiversity on Earth and also one of the habitat types most likely to be impacted by environmental change. More information is urgently needed regarding the functioning of coral reef ecosystems and several researchers at Glasgow study the ecology, physiology, and behaviour of coral reef organisms at various locations around the globe.
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Lizard Island, Great Barrier Reef, Australia |
At the Lizard Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef, we study how energetic demand and aerobic capacity affect the foraging and social behaviours of young reef fishes, and how such links between physiology and behaviour may by altered by factors associated with climate change.
We also have work the Red Sea in collaboration with the Open Ocean Research Centres and Suez Canal University, which involves research, field courses and student expeditions http://openoceanproject.org/. Subjects include fish behaviour and the biology of coralline algae.
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| Juvenile ambon damselfish, marked for identification with elastomere | Juvenile ambon damselfish in respirometers, being measured for metabolic rate |
Selected publications
- Killen, S. S., Mitchell, M. D., Rummer, J. L., Chivers, D. P., Ferrari, M. C.O., Meekan, M. G., and McCormick, M. I. (2014) Aerobic scope predicts dominance during early life in a tropical damselfish. Functional Ecology, 28 (6). pp. 1367-1376. ISSN 0269-8463 (doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12296)
- Nadler, L. E., McNeill, D. C., Alwany, M. A., and Bailey, D. M. (2014)Effect of habitat characteristics on the distribution and abundance of damselfish within a Red Sea reef. Environmental Biology of Fishes, 97 (11). pp. 1265-1277. ISSN 0378-1909 (doi:10.1007/s10641-013-0212-9)
- Burdett, H. L., Keddie, V., MacArthur, N., McDowall, L., McLeish, J., Spielvogel, E., Hatton, A. D., and Kamenos, N. A. (2014) Dynamic photoinhibition exhibited by red coralline algae in the red sea. BMC Plant Biology, 14 (1). p. 139. ISSN 1471-2229 (doi:10.1186/1471-2229-14-139)
How Smart are Fish?
An interactive educational project developed by Dr. Martina Quaggiotto in collaboration with Prof. Felicity Huntingford - supported by the University of Glasgow along with two sponsors, The Fisheries Society of the British Isles (FSBI) and the Buckland Foundation.
A commonly-held view sees fish as robot-like animals with no intelligence, little capacity for learning and a 15 second memory. A large and growing body of scientific information indicates that this is far from the truth. Fish, in fact, have a well-developed capacity for learning and a good memory when this is needed. In addition, while fish species surely differ in their mental capacities and behaviour, within the group as a whole there are many that perform complex behaviours that in mammals would be deemed intelligent or “smart”.
The dissonance between popular image and reality arises because most people do not have the time or opportunity to discover just how complex fish behaviour is, although they are often surprised and interested by the idea that animals that are so different from ourselves share many complex behavioural capacities with birds and mammals. On the other hand, traditional fishers and anglers (who take part in the largest participation sport in the world) have both the opportunity and the need to find out about fish behaviour, so it is interesting to know their views on whether or not fish are smart. For scientists, the special interest of fish behavioural complexity and cognition lies in the fact that this is the phylogenetically-oldest vertebrate group, so their behaviour can inform understanding of the evolution of our own behavioural capacities.
We therefore, created an interactive e-learning presentation “How smart are fish?” to engage the general public and let them find out about the interesting complexity of fish behaviour, its implications for the effectiveness of commercial and recreational fisheries and what traditional fishers and anglers know on this topic. In this presentation, we summarise some of the knowledge shared by scientists and fishers on just how smart fish are and give you links to more detailed contents (scientific articles) and additional resources (online videos and news).
If you would further information on this fascinating project, or indeed to give any feedback, please email please contact howsmartarefish@gmail.com
RELEVANT LINKS:
How Smart Are Fish Interactive Educational Project
Dr. Maria Martina Quaggiotto Research Pages
Naturally Speaking Podcast 49: How Smart are Fish?
The Institute has a particularly strong and diverse Fish Biology Research Group investigating the behaviour, physiology, and ecology of fishes. Follow them on Twitter (https://twitter.com/GlasgowUniFish) and find them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/University-of-Glasgow-Fish-Biology-Group/102642826757245).
See related Special Interest Groups for related work on marine organisms
Seabird Interest Group
The Seabird Interest Group is a network of researchers who are interested in seabird demography, behaviour & physiology, movement & resource utilization and trophic & ecosystem ecology.
Thermal Ecology Group
Our interests relate to the ecophysiology of temperature regulation in animals, and the applications of body temperature measurement to ecological, behavioural and animal welfare problems.