Exploring the thermal adaptability of silver pompano Trachinotus blochii: An initiative to assist climate change adaptation and mitigation to augment aquaculture productivity

Abstract

Temperature is one of the crucial environmental factors affecting the physiology and suitability of fish species for aquaculture, making it vital to predict how the present rate of climate change will impact these species. To assess the heat tolerance of silver pompano Trachinotus blochii, the Critical Thermal Maxima (CTmax) and Critical Thermal Minima (CTmin) were investigated at six different acclimation temperatures (Tacc), ranging from 18 to 36 °C. Generalized Additive Model (GAM) was performed on CTmax and CTmin and tested for data validation. The results revealed that the CTmax and CTmin for T. blochii were 41.1 ± 0.0478 °C and 12.0 ± 0.0748 °C, respectively. The Thermal Tolerance Polygon was calculated to be 357.02 oC2 for the specified temperatures. The study revealed that silver pompano acclimated to higher temperatures exhibited greater thermal tolerance. Additionally, it was found that their thermal tolerance could be increased through an acclimation regime, allowing them to adapt better to higher temperatures. The results enlighten the species potential towards securing global food security and sustainable development, as these resilient finfish can be integrated into climate-smart marine aquaculture systems to mitigate the effects of climate change by providing valuable information for future actionable strategies for species diversification.

Keywords

• Climate change
• Thermal tolerance
• Acclimation temperature
• Climate smart marine aquaculture
• Food security