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Temperature effects on the physiology, growth and survival of the apple snail Pomacea sp. (Perry, 1810)

February 2025
Aquatic Ecology

Authors:

Universidad de la República de Uruguay

The energetic balance of organisms depends on the energy assimilated from food to fulfill vital functions (e.g. maintenance and somatic growth). Temperature drives the energetic balance and the performance of organisms. Evaluating the effect of temperature on multiple components is relevant to understanding the response to climate change. Here, we evaluated the thermal performance curve (TPC) for oxygen consumption (OC), ammonia excretion (AER) and ingestion rates (IR) in temperatures from 6 to 30 °C in the freshwater apple snail Pomacea sp. Additionally, we evaluated the evolution of somatic growth, IR and survival for ca. 400 days in snails exposed to fluctuating environmental temperature (OT; T range = 7–27 °C) and laboratory conditions (IT; T range = 12–19.6 °C). The TPC of OC and AER showed a unimodal pattern, with an optimum at 22 and 28 °C, respectively. IR showed a monotonic increase towards the warmest temperature (30 °C). Between ~ 15–20 °C weight increases with temperature while IR remains constant; suggesting snails invest energy mostly in growth. The final size achieved by snails in IT and OT were similar (~ 500 mg) while maximum IR was lower in IT (~ 400 mg/g.d vs ~ 800 mg/g.d of ET). Survival was similar between treatments, but growth parameters fitted by a modified Von Bertalanffy growth function with a temperature dependence on growth coefficient differed. TPC were different, which could generate mismatch between resource acquisition, assimilation and excretion affecting growth patterns. Evidence on a high capacity to deal with large thermal variability suggests adaptations of the snail to cope with climate change.

Distribution and site of collection of the apple snails Pomacea sp used in the present study. a Distribution of P. canaliculata in South America, modified from Hayes et al. (2012). b, c Snails were collected in the East coast of Uruguay in (d) a freshwater lagoon (Briozzo Lagoon) close to the Cabo Polonio Marine Protected Area. e After reproduction events, snails were maintained in cultures under controlled laboratory conditions. New hatched juvenile snails were used in the present experiments

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Thermal performance curves (TPC) for multiple components: a Oxygen consumption (OC; mgO2/g.h), b Ammonia excretion rate (AER; µgNH4/g.d) and c Ingestion rate (IR; mg/g.d), of juveniles of the freshwater snail Pomacea sp. exposed to 5 levels of temperature (6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 °C). Data are presented as average (dot) ± SD (segment). Thick continuous lines represent the model that best fits the data (Tables 1, 2, 3, 4)

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Growth and survival of juvenile Pomacea sp. snails maintained under semi-controlled and variable temperature regimes for 400 days. a Water temperature in indoor (IT) and in the (b) outdoor treatments (OT). Growth patterns in (c) IT and d OT with the results of the fit to the modified von Bertalanffy growth function. Kaplan–Meier survival plots for (e) IT and f OT which were not significantly different (p = 0.72). Dashed lines represent the 95% confidence interval for the survival curve

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GAMM plots showed the effects of Temperature (fixed factor) over a Ingestion Rate (IR) and b Weight (p < 0.05 for both indicators; time, treatment and individual were included as random factors) of juvenile Pomacea sp snails exposed to indoor (IT) and outdoor (OT) conditions. The zero in the response variable axis represents the mean value of the variable (IR and Weight) in both graphics

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Aquat Ecol

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-025-10171-4

Temperature eﬀects onthephysiology, growth andsurvival

oftheapple snail Pomacea sp. (Perry, 1810)

FlorenciaG.Féola · CarolinaCrisci·

JulioC.Gómez· AngelM.Segura

Received: 11 June 2024 / Accepted: 4 January 2025

similar (~ 500mg) while maximum IR was lower in

IT (~ 400 mg/g.d vs ~ 800 mg/g.d of ET). Survival

was similar between treatments, but growth param-

eters ﬁtted by a modiﬁed Von Bertalanﬀy growth

function with a temperature dependence on growth

coeﬃcient diﬀered. TPC were diﬀerent, which could

generate mismatch between resource acquisition,

assimilation and excretion aﬀecting growth patterns.

Evidence on a high capacity to deal with large ther-

mal variability suggests adaptations of the snail to

cope with climate change.

Keywords Apple snail· Climate change· Energetic

metabolism· Thermal performance curve

Introduction

Understanding the energetic balance of organisms

in changing environments is critical to predict the

response of organisms, populations and communities

to the eﬀects of global climatic change (Abram etal.

2016). Heterotrophic organisms are able to keep their

integrity by using assimilated energy obtained from

food to sustain somatic maintenance, growth and

reproduction as well as excreting toxic compounds

(e.g. ammonia) (Hill and Wyse 1992; Brown et al.

2004; Berneche and Allen 2015). The energetic bal-

ance of an organism can be represented following

Winberg (1956) as:

Abstract The energetic balance of organisms

depends on the energy assimilated from food to ful-

ﬁll vital functions (e.g. maintenance and somatic

growth). Temperature drives the energetic balance

and the performance of organisms. Evaluating the

eﬀect of temperature on multiple components is

relevant to understanding the response to climate

change. Here, we evaluated the thermal performance

curve (TPC) for oxygen consumption (OC), ammonia

excretion (AER) and ingestion rates (IR) in temper-

atures from 6 to 30°C in the freshwater apple snail

Pomacea sp. Additionally, we evaluated the evolution

of somatic growth, IR and survival for ca. 400days

in snails exposed to ﬂuctuating environmental tem-

perature (OT; T range = 7–27 °C) and laboratory

conditions (IT; T range = 12–19.6 °C). The TPC of

OC and AER showed a unimodal pattern, with an

optimum at 22 and 28 °C, respectively. IR showed

a monotonic increase towards the warmest tempera-

ture (30 °C). Between ~ 15–20 °C weight increases

with temperature while IR remains constant; sug-

gesting snails invest energy mostly in growth. The

ﬁnal size achieved by snails in IT and OT were

Handling Editor: Rafael Dettogni Guariento.

F.G.Féola(*)· C.Crisci· J.C.Gómez· A.M.Segura

Modelización Estadística de Datos e Inteligencia Artiﬁcial

(MEDIA), Centro Universitario Regional del Este

(CURE), Universidad de la República (UdelaR), Rocha,

Uruguay

e-mail: ﬂorencia.feola@cure.edu.uy

Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.

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