Otolith asymmetry as a proxy of thermal stress in cold water fish: do observations on natural populations of Cottus gobio meet experimental results?
How to cite: Novak, M., Abdoli, A., Pont, D., & Sagnes, P. (2013). Otolith asymmetry as a proxy of thermal stress in cold water fish: do observations on natural populations of Cottus gobio meet experimental results? Cybium, 37(4): 281-284. https://doi.org/10.26028/CYBIUM/2013-374-007
An increase of water temperature due to global warming is expected to be stressful for many aquatic species such as cold-water fishes. Otolith asymmetry is known to be a proxy of fish stress. However, Cottus gobio Linnaeus, 1758 inhabiting potentially stressing (i.e. warm) thermal conditions did not present a higher level of asymmetry in their otoliths than other ones. Local adaptations to thermal stress of the different populations studied or a weak a priori definition of the thermal tolerance of this species are discussed.