Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology · 2026
Water-borne cortisol is correlated with acclimatization temperature but not metabolic rate in a teleost fish
In European sea bass, this study examines how seasonal acclimatization temperature affects metabolic rate and the cortisol accumulated in the water. Both rise with temperature, but they show no clear correlation once fish mass is accounted for.
- The question
- Does acclimatization temperature change metabolic rate and water-borne cortisol, and are the two measures related?
- The approach
- Sea bass from the Atlantic population reared for three years under three thermal regimes following seasonal variation (Atlantic control, moderately warm, warm); oxygen uptake measured by swim-tunnel respirometry and water-borne cortisol sampled at different temperatures through the year.
- What the article brings
- Metabolic rate and cortisol both increase with acclimatization temperature, with similar thermal sensitivity across regimes; at a given temperature, cortisol stays higher in the control regime than in the warm one.
- The limits
- A single population was studied; the authors present this work as the first investigation of these relationships in a fish species.
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