Affiliations 

  • 1 Higher Institution of Center Excellence, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Malaysia
  • 2 College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University, Can Tho City, Vietnam
  • 3 Faculty of Applied Sciences, UCSI University, Cheras, Malaysia
  • 4 Borneo Marine Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
  • 5 Heilongjiang River Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, Harbin, China
  • 6 Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
J Fish Biol, 2021 Jul;99(1):206-218.
PMID: 33629400 DOI: 10.1111/jfb.14712

Abstract

Climate warming and low pH environment are known to negatively impact all levels of aquatic organism from cellular to organism and population levels. For ammonotelic freshwater species, any abiotic factor fluctuation will cause disturbance to the fish, specifically at the gills which act as a multifunctional organ to support all biological processes. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the effect of temperature (28 vs. 32°C) and pH (7.0 vs. 5.0) stress on the gill plasticity of Hoven's carp after 20 days of continuous exposure. The results demonstrated that high temperature and low pH caused severe changes on the primary and secondary lamellae as well as the cells within lamellae. An increasing trend of the proportion available for gas exchange was noticed at high temperature in both pH exposures, which resulted from a reduction of the primary lamellae width with elongated and thinner secondary lamellae compared to fishes at ambient temperature. Following exposure to high temperature and acidic pH, Hoven's carp experienced gill modifications including aneurysm, oedema, hypertrophy, curling of secondary lamellae, epithelial lifting, hyperplasia and lamellae fusion. These modifications are indicators of the coping mechanism of Hoven's carp to the changing environment in order to survive.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.