Abstract
The hypothesis that fish vision is influenced by the presence of a choroid rete mirabile (an oxygen-concentrating apparatus in the eye) and the Root effect was tested using the optomotor response in two nototheniid species from Antarctica. Pagothenia borchgrevinki, an active cryopelagic zooplanktivore, does not exhibit a major Root effect and the rete is absent. In contrast, the sluggish, benthic nototheniid, Trematomus bernacchii, possesses both a rete and a significant Root effect. Whole-eye ocular PO2 was higher in T. bernacchii (18.6 kPa) than in P. borchgrevinki (18.1 kPa) and the optomotor response of T. bernacchii was positively influenced by subtended angle on a moving background whereas P. borchgrevinki did not respond to any subtended angle (0–600 min of arc). The optomotor response of T. bernacchii may therefore have been facilitated by elevated ocular PO2 due to the presence of the choroid rete and the Root effect.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the staff at Scott Base for their logistic support. This study was supported by the award of a Commonwealth Scholarship to N.A.H. and a grant-in-aid from the University of Auckland Research Fund. We also wish to thank Professor John Montgomery for plenary discussions.
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Herbert, N.A., Macdonald, J.A., Wells, R.M.G. et al. A difference in optomotor behaviour of two Antarctic nototheniid fishes is correlated with the presence of a choroid rete mirabile and Root effect. Polar Biol 26, 411–415 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0498-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-003-0498-8