Metabolic constraints and individual variation shape the trade-off between physiological recovery and anti-predator responses in adult sockeye salmon

Metabolic scope represents the aerobic energy budget available to an organism to perform non-maintenance activities (e.g., escape a predator, recover from a fisheries interaction, compete for a mate). Conflicting energetic requirements can give rise to ecologically relevant metabolic trade-offs when energy budgeting is constrained. The objective of this study was to investigate how aerobic energy is utilized when individual sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) are exposed to multiple acute stressors. To indirectly assess metabolic changes in free-swimming individuals, salmon were implanted with heart rate biologgers. The animals were then exercised to exhaustion or briefly handled as a control, and allowed to recover from this stressor for 48 h. During the first 2 h of the recovery period, individual salmon were exposed to 90 ml of conspecific alarm cues or water as a control. Heart rate was recorded throughout the recovery period. Recovery effort and time was higher in exercised fish, relative to control fish, whereas exposure to an alarm cue had no effect on either of these metrics. Individual routine heart rate was negatively correlated with recovery time and effort. Together, these findings suggest that metabolic energy allocation towards exercise recovery (i.e., an acute stressor; handling, chase, etc.) trumps anti-predator responses in salmon, although individual variation may mediate this effect at the population level.