Comparative metabolic rates of common western North Atlantic Ocean sciaenid fishes

Abstract

The resting metabolic rates (R(R)) of western North Atlantic Ocean sciaenids, such as Atlantic croaker Micropogonias undulatus, spot Leiostomus xanthurus and kingfishes Menticirrhus spp., as well as the active metabolic rates (R(A)) of M. undulatus and L. xanthurus were investigated to facilitate inter and intraspecific comparisons of their energetic ecology. The R(R) of M. undulatus and L. xanthurus were typical for fishes with similar lifestyles. The R(R) of Menticirrhus spp. were elevated relative to those of M. undulatus and L. xanthurus, but below those of high-energy-demand species such as tunas Thunnus spp. and dolphinfish Coryphaena hippurus. Repeated-measures non-linear mixed-effects models were applied to account for within-individual autocorrelation and corrected for non-constant variance typical of noisy R(A) data sets. Repeated-measures models incorporating autoregressive first-order [AR(1)] and autoregressive moving average (ARMA) covariances provided significantly superior fits, more precise parameter estimates (i.e. reduced s.e.) and y-intercept estimates that more closely approximated measured R(R) for M. undulatus and L. xanthurus than standard least-squares regression procedures.