Impact of Hypoxia on Startle Response (C-start) of Fish in a Tropical Urban Estuary

Hypoxic zones have become more prevalent in marine ecosystems as a result of physical changes to the coastal zone, pollution and eutrophication, and are expected to increase in prevalence with climate change. While some studies have examined the behavioral effects of hypoxia on coastal fishes in temperate and sub-tropical zones, none have focused on tropical coastal zones. Behavioral changes may affect fish survival, predator-prey interactions and ultimately ecosystem structure. Through behavioral endpoints we evaluated the effects of non-lethal levels of hypoxia on estuarine fish collected from the tropical Condado Lagoon, San Juan P.R, in a laboratory setting. Two groups of 10 fishes were placed individually in a sound test chamber and oxygen concentrations were modulated from a pre-treatment at 100% oxygen to increasing levels of hypoxia (80, 70, & 60%), followed by a reversal treatment (100%) to test for recovery of pretreatment behavior. An abrupt sound stimulus was used to elicit a startle response, a quantifiable biological endpoint, while recording with a high speed camera. This approach can lend valuable insight into changes in the central nervous system and effects of anthropogenic inputs on tropical ecosystems at the individual- and population-level. We found that hypoxic conditions significantly decrease fish responsiveness; fish startled only half the time at 80% O₂ and dropped as much as 61% at 60% O₂. Additionally, responsiveness in reversal tests were significantly lower than under pre-treatment conditions. These results indicate that hypoxia may have long-term or possibly permanent effects, even under relatively mild hypoxia conditions common to tropical estuaries. Future work will aim to understand if the startle response can be regained after a hypoxic event.