Temperature is an important environmental variable that directly influences all levels of biological function. In spite of years of study, our knowledge of how temperature affects organisms is still sketchy, especially in terms of maximal behavioral capacities. This study will be the first comprehensive examination of how body temperature influences burst escape and feeding capacities in fish. These are probably important behaviors ensuring successful survival, growth, and reproduction in natural populations, but we do not understand how rapid changes in temperature may affect these capacities. Further, it will be the first study to examine the plasticity of the of these behaviors during long term temperature exposure (acclimation). The study will also begin to examine how genetic structure (ploidy level) may influence acclimation ability, as previously hypothesized by other workers. This study will also examine evolutionary responses to different temperatures in a group of fish, some taxa of which have very narrow and others very broad thermal environments. These types of information, that is, understanding of how animals respond to acute and long term temperature exposure, in both organismal and evolutionary time frames, is important to both fisheries management (e.g., likely effects of water temperature on stock performance in nature and the ability of those stocks to adjust performance over longer term temperature exposure) and to our understanding of how fish populations may adjust to range extension or climate change.
