Behavioral Responses of Fishes to Environmental Stressors

Dear Colleagues,

A series of environmental stimuli can threaten fish homeostasis, and those stimuli are commonly called stressors. The fish must be able to make rapid behavioral and physiological adjustments to cope with stressors to maintain homeostasis. The set of such adjustments is called the stress response. Exposure to stressors typically induces the activation of many neural pathways that culminate with increased activity of both the sympathetic nervous system and the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal axis. The activation of such neuroendocrine systems leads to an increase in plasma catecholamines and cortisol levels, respectively, within a few minutes. These primary stress responses induce, for instance, mobilization of energy reserves and cardiorespiratory changes to allow the organism to deal with the stressor since stress is an energy-demanding body response. Whole-body reactions also take place, such as behavioral changes. Although behavioral responses to stress have been studied in fish, complex neuroendocrine responses integration and behavioral changes in fish are far from our full comprehension. Some behavioral changes are correlated to physiological responses, while others have cause-and-effect relationships. Considering the huge diversity of fish species, we also found divergent behavioral changes in a species-specific manner. Yet, divergent behavioral responses to different stressors in the same species have also been reported, implying a stressor-specific response machinery. The stressor effects in fish can also become persistent and, hence, leads to a chronic effect. Abnormal behaviors in chronically stressed fish and the underlying physiological mechanism (causation) or correlated physiological variables are less studied than acute effects described above. In this line, enhancing our understanding of the association of physiological and behavioral responses will contribute to improving the theoretical framework of the phenomenon of stress. Moreover, based on a solid knowledge of stress, applied purposes can be reached, such as minimization of deleterious stress effects in fish in contexts of aquaculture, environmental changes induced by anthropogenic impact, etc. Thus, in this issue are welcome articles that address behavioral changes during stress in fish in a pure and/or applied context. It is mandatory that measured causal independent variables and/or response-dependent variables are behavioral variables.

Dr. Rodrigo Egydio Barreto
Guest Editor

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