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A device, utilising the suction produced by a disposable syringe, was developed to restrain a range of very small organisms in flowing seawater. The technique was developed during an investigation of the swimming response of barnacle nauplii to changes in temperature. The combination of beat frequency and the proportion of time spent active was held constant for B. balanoides and B. hameri but steadily increased with temperature for C. montagui and B. amnhitrite. E. modestus showed an intermediate response. Methods for utilising video-tape recordings and a micro-impedance pneumograph for analysing limb beat activity, were developed during an investigation of the feeding behaviour of nauplii. The feeding mechanism was reappraised and an increase in the volume of water handled by the larvae noted in the presence of food organisms. This increase was shown by E. modestus nauplii in response to dissolved organic substances, indicating that the nauplii could determine when to feed, and what was edible, from the shell of dissolved material surrounding food particles. A quantitative study of the grazing of E. modestus nauplii showed that the ingestion rate of algal cells increased up to concentrations of 150 - 200 cells/ul, then remained steady. Larger algal cells were taken from algal mixtures, in preference to smaller ones. Restraint techniques and video-recordings of free-swimming cypris larvae showed them to be prodigeous swimmers, with considerable control over the direction and magnitude of the thrust produced. The close observation of larvae allowed by the restraint technique enabled mechanical stimulation of particular sense organs. The function of these organs had been interpreted from their structure by previous authors. In some instances, a mechano-receptive function was confirmed, but in others, doubt was cast. Restrained cyprids responded to complex sound fields by swimming less often. A dual mode sound chamber was used to differentiate between sound pressure and displacement, but negative results were obtained. The cyprids did, however, respond to substrate vibrations, at low frequencies, by swimming off the substrate. All the developed techniques were further employed to show that the classical copepod feeding swirls were artefacts. Temora produced'only a posteriorly flowing current for feeding and swimming, when restrained in larger volumes of seawater. The amount of water handled by Temora was also shown to increase when food algae were present.

This thesis evaluates the adaptive significance of annual cycles on the migratory behaviour of Baltic salmon (Salmo salar L.). The studies have included field experiments as well as laboratory studies gf maturity and migratory behaviour patterns of smolts and postsmolts mainly from the Angerman river population. Contrasting to the phenotypical elasticity in life-history traits, Baltic salmon was found to have a rather strict temporal organization of their annual behavioural patterns. Two year old smolted Baltic salmon showed drastic differences in migratory behaviour when compared in tanks containing either fresh or brackish water. Freshwater kept fish showed an annual cycle where downstream displacement in the upper water column was followed by a stationary behaviour, indicating a readaption to a freshwater life. Fish in brackish water behaved as a migratory fish throughout tne study. Baltic salmon also showed differences in maturation patterns in fresh and brackish water. Three summer old males detained in freshwater all matured sexually the following autumn. If transferred to sea and kept in net- pens a low proportion matured, mainly previously matured males. Furthermore there was a size- dependent relationship of sexual rematuration. Many small previously matured males did not migrate, similarly small previolusly matured males were unable to respond to shifts in the environment. With larger size the alternatives of sexual maturation and high growth rate wi more related to the environmental conditions the fish experienced. A hypothesis has been tested assuming that Baltic salmon migration is influenced by an annual time program. According to the hypothesis the migratory distance covered in the Baltic should be a result of a migratory activity sequence rather than a definite goal orientation. Fish detained before release generally showed a shorter distance between release point and area of recapture compared to fish released at normal time of smoltrun. The migratory distance appeared to be inversly related to the period of delay before release. A seasonal difference in migratory propensity was recorded. An instantaneous mortality curve for Baltic salmon during seaward migration and early sea-phase was estimated based on recapture data on sequentially related fish. The weekly mortality rate decreased from an initial mean of 271 during onset of migration, to 3.51 in mean during autumn. The high risk of mortality during the first part of migration indicated that strong selective forces act on a precise seasonal timing of migration. / <p>Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 1988, härtill 5 uppsatser</p> / digitalisering@umu

L’utilisation excessive de pesticides engendre des pollutions et des dégradations importantes de l’environnement y compris sur les écosystèmes aquatiques. L’activité viticole ne fait pas exception à cette règle, et c’est pour cette raison que ce travail de thèse s’est intéressé aux réponses adaptatives ou délétères aux premiers stades de vie de poissons exposés à trois produits phytosanitaires utilisés en viticulture ainsi qu’à leur mélange et à des échantillons environnementaux. La thèse s’intéresse aux stades précoces de développement de la truite arc-en-ciel, mais également à la lignée cellulaire de foie de truite RTL-W1. Les embryons de truite ont été exposés au cuivre, au glyphosate et au chlorpyrifos seuls ou en mélange. Une autre partie de ce travail a consisté à étudier les effets toxiques des échantillons environnementaux d’eau et de sédiment provenant d’un cours d’eau, La Livenne, à proximité de parcelles viticoles. Toutes les expériences ont été faites en conditions contrôlées de laboratoire. Les réponses induites par ces expositions ont été mesurées à différents niveaux d’organisation biologique : au niveau moléculaire, phénotypique et comportemental pour l’étude in vivo (larves de la truite arc-en-ciel) ; et l’analyse des effets cytotoxiques de l’induction des espèces réactives de l’oxygène (ROS) et des dommages à l’ADN pour l’étude in vitro (lignée RTL-W1). Les résultats de ce travail ont montré que l’exposition aux pesticides individuels, ou en mélange, chez les larves de truites arc-en-ciel n’a pas produit d’effets létaux aux concentrations testés. En revanche, ces substances ont provoqués différents effets sub-létaux, selon le composé et les concentrations étudiés, dont des effets tératogènes, des perturbations du comportement natatoire, des effets génotoxiques et l’expression différentielle de gènes cibles. Le cuivre s’est avéré le plus toxique provoquant un échec d’éclosion important. Des effets cytotoxiques et une production d’espèces réactives de l’oxygène (ERO) ont été observés sur cellules de truite exposées à des extraits d’eau de rivière. Par ailleurs, des effets comportementaux ont été observés sur les larves de truites exposées pendant 48 h à des sédiments et de l’eau de la Livenne. En conclusion, ces travaux de thèse ont mis en évidence des effets sub-létaux sur les cellules et les stades précoces de développement de truite arc-en-ciel exposés à des concentrations environnementales de pesticides utilisés en viticulture. / The excessive use of pesticides generates significant pollution and degradation of the environment, including aquatic ecosystems. The viticultural activity is not an exception for this rule, and this is why the aim of this work is to study the adaptive or deleterious responses in the early life stages of fish exposed to three phytosanitary products used in viticulture as well as to their mixture and environmental samples. The thesis focuses on the early stages of development of rainbow trout, but also on the trout liver cell line RTL-W1. Trout embryos were exposed to copper, glyphosate and chlorpyrifos alone or as a mixture. Another part of this work consisted in studying the toxic effects of environmental samples of water and sediment coming from a river, La Livenne, close to vineyard plots. All experiments were done under controlled laboratory conditions. The responses induced by these exposures were measured at different levels of biological organization: at the molecular, phenotypic and behavioral level for the in vivo study (rainbow trout larvae); and the analysis of cytotoxic effects and induction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and DNA damage for the in vitro study (RTL-W1 line). The results of this work showed that exposure to individual or mixed pesticides in rainbow trout larvae did not produce lethal effects at the tested concentrations. In contrast, these substances caused different sub-lethal effects, depending on the compound and concentrations studied, including teratogenic effects, swim behavior disturbances, genotoxic effects, and differential expression of target genes. Copper was found to be the most toxic causing a major hatching failure. Cytotoxic effects and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were observed on trout cells exposed to river water extracts. In addition, behavioral effects were observed on trout larvae exposed for 48 h to sediments and Livenne water. In conclusion, these thesis studies revealed sub-lethal effects on cells and early stages of development of rainbow trout exposed to environmental concentrations of pesticides.