No short-term effect of salinity on oxygen consumption in threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) from fresh, brackish, and salt water

Marine threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculatus L., 1758) have repeatedly colonized Holarctic freshwater environments after the retreat of the Pleistocene glaciers, and based on their ability to move rapidly between salinities have apparently retained a robust osmoregulatory apparatus that can cope with both short- and long-term exposure to non-native salinity environments. Standard metabolic rate (SMR), measured as oxygen consumption at rest, can be used as an indicator of the cost of osmoregulation when fish are exposed to new environmental conditions. Following freshwater colonization, reduction in the number of lateral plates, an antipredator defence structure, is common. Completely plated fish dominate in the sea, low-plated fish dominate in fresh water, and partially plated fish often dominate in brackish water environments. In a laboratory experiment, we estimated SMR in locally adapted populations from salt, brackish, and freshwater environments at three different salinities (0, 15, and 30 practical salinity units (PSU)). In addition, we tested for correlations between SMR and lateral plate number and lateral plate genotype at the Ectodysplasin locus for stickleback originating from the brackish water population. Contrary to our expectations, no differences were found in SMR between any of the experimental groups in our experiment. Apparently, the threespine stickleback is able to move among salinity environments without large short-term metabolic costs, irrespective of their environment of origin.