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Understanding how ectotherms may fare with rising global temperatures and more frequent heatwaves is especially concerning for species already considered at‐risk, such as long‐lived, late‐maturing sturgeon. There have been concerted efforts to collect data on the movement behavior and thermal physiology of North American sturgeon to enhance conservation efforts; thus, we sought to synthesize these data to understand how sturgeon respond to thermal stress and what capacity they have to acclimate and adapt to warming. Here, we combined a systematic literature review and meta‐analysis, integrating field‐based observations (distribution and spawning) and laboratory‐based experiments (survival, activity, growth, metabolism, and upper thermal limits) for large‐scale insights to understand the vulnerability of North American sturgeon to rising global temperatures. We summarized the preferred thermal habitat and thermal limits of sturgeon in their natural environment and using meta‐analytical techniques, quantified the effect of prolonged temperature change on sturgeon whole‐animal physiology and acute upper thermal limits. While acclimation did not have significant effects on physiological rates or survival overall, there were positive trends of activity and metabolism in young‐of‐the‐year sturgeons, likely offset by negative trends of survival in early life. Notably, North American sturgeon have a greater capacity for thermal tolerance plasticity than other fishes, increasing upper thermal limits by 0.56°C per 1°C change in acclimation temperature. But with limited laboratory‐based studies, more research is needed to understand if this is a sturgeon trait, or perhaps that of basal fishes in general. Importantly, with these data gaps, the fate of sturgeon remains uncertain as climate change intensifies, and physiological impacts across life stages likely limit ecological success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal performance curves (TPCs) provide a framework for understanding the effects of temperature on ectotherm performance and fitness. TPCs are often used to test hypotheses regarding local adaptation to temperature or to develop predictions for how organisms will respond to climate warming. However, for aquatic organisms such as fishes, most TPCs have been estimated for adult life stages, and little is known about the shape of TPCs or the potential for thermal adaptation at sensitive embryonic life stages. To examine how latitudinal gradients shape TPCs at early life stages in fishes, we used two populations of Fundulus heteroclitus that have been shown to exhibit latitudinal variation along the thermal cline as adults. We exposed embryos from both northern and southern populations and their reciprocal crosses to eight different temperatures (15°C, 18°C, 21°C, 24°C, 27°C, 30°C, 33°C, and 36°C) until hatch and examined the effects of developmental temperature on embryonic and larval traits (shape of TPCs, heart rate, and body size). We found that the pure southern embryos had a right‐shifted TPC (higher thermal optimum (Topt) for developmental rate, survival, and embryonic growth rate) whereas pure northern embryos had a vertically shifted TPC (higher maximum performance (Pmax) for developmental rate). Differences across larval traits and cross‐type were also found, such that northern crosses hatched faster and hatched at a smaller size compared to the pure southern population. Overall, these observed differences in embryonic and larval traits are consistent with patterns of both local adaptation and countergradient variation. Highlights: Local adaptation and countergradient variation influence the shape of embryo thermal performance curves in two locally adapted populations of killifish. Embryos also had a narrower thermal breadth than adults due to reduced cold tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the factors that influence the resilience of biological systems to environmental change is a pressing concern in the face of increasing human impacts on ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. However, most considerations of biological resilience have focused at the community and ecosystem levels, whereas here we discuss how including consideration of processes occurring at lower levels of biological organization may provide insights into factors that influence resilience at higher levels. Specifically, we explore how processes at the genomic and epigenomic levels may cascade up to influence resilience at higher levels. We ask how the concepts of "resistance," or the capacity of a system to minimize change in response to a disturbance, and "recovery," or the ability of a system to return to its original state following a disturbance and avoid tipping points and resulting regime shifts, map to these lower levels of biological organization. Overall, we suggest that substantial changes at these lower levels may be required to support resilience at higher levels, using selected examples of genomic and epigenomic responses of fish to climate-change-related stressors such as high temperature and hypoxia at the levels of the genome, epigenome, and organism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric CO2 and temperature are rising concurrently, and may have profound impacts on the transcriptional, physiological and behavioural responses of aquatic organisms. Further, spring snowmelt may cause transient increases of pCO2 in many freshwater systems. We examined the behavioural, physiological and transcriptomic responses of an ancient fish, the lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) to projected levels of warming and pCO2 during its most vulnerable period of life, the first year. Specifically, larval fish were raised in either low (16°C) or high (22°C) temperature, and/or low (1000 μatm) or high (2500 μatm) pCO2 in a crossed experimental design over approximately 8 months. Following overwintering, lake sturgeon were exposed to a transient increase in pCO2 of 10,000 μatm, simulating a spring melt based on data in freshwater systems. Transcriptional analyses revealed potential connections to otolith formation and reduced growth in fish exposed to high pCO2 and temperature in combination. Network analyses of differential gene expression revealed different biological processes among the different treatments on the edges of transcriptional networks. Na+/K+‐ATPase activity increased in fish not exposed to elevated pCO2 during development, and mRNA abundance of the β subunit was most strongly predictive of enzyme activity. Behavioural assays revealed a decrease in total activity following an acute CO2 exposure. These results demonstrate compensatory and compounding mechanisms of pCO2 and warming dependent on developmental conditions in lake sturgeon. Conserved elements of the cellular stress response across all organisms provide key information for how other freshwater organisms may respond to future climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) occupy some of the most northerly distributions of any sturgeon species and experience extended overwintering periods when resources may be limited. Conservation stocking is currently used as a management tool to enhance lake sturgeon populations that are at risk or endangered. One of the most limiting components of the conservation effort is our understanding of energy requirements that allow age-0 lake sturgeon to survive their first winter. In this study, age-0 fish (mean mass 5.6 g ± 0.5 S.E.; mean total length 12.7 cm ± 0.4 S.E.) were held in groups of 12 individuals (10 total groups) and starved for a period of four weeks while being held at 1 ± 1 °C. This setting was intended to simulate winter conditions that occur in the Winnipeg River, MB, Canada. Post-winter fish condition and physiology were compared to pre-winter fish using survival, energy density, metabolic rate, glucose, triglyceride, protein, and cortisol production as metrics. While mortality was high (42%) during the experiment, results indicated that fish with total water content below 90% and energy density above 2000 J/g were more likely to survive. Whole body triglyceride, plasma triglyceride, plasma glucose levels, and standard metabolic rates were also found to significantly decline over time while whole body cortisol concentration increased. Understanding these thresholds will help in future refinements of rearing conditions, which look to improve the survival of age-0 lake sturgeon released into the wild pre-winter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-protection occurs when exposure to one stressor confers heightened tolerance against a different stressor. Alternatively, exposure to one stressor could result in reduced tolerance against other stressors. Although cross-protection has been documented in a wide range of taxa at juvenile and adult life stages, whether early developmental exposure to a stressor confers cross-protection or reduced tolerance to other stressors later in life through developmental plasticity remains largely unexplored. In this study, we examined whether altered temperature during embryonic development results in developmental plasticity in upper thermal tolerance or hypoxia tolerance using a small topminnow, Fundulus heteroclitus, and examined potential underlying molecular mechanisms. We incubated embryos at one of two ecologically relevant temperatures (20°C or 26°C) until hatch. Once hatched, fish were raised at a common temperature of 20°C for 1 year, and tolerance was assessed in both juveniles (6 months) and early adults (1 year). Developmental temperature had no significant effect on thermal tolerance (CTmax) in juvenile fish, or on the transcript abundance of thermal tolerance-related genes (constitutive heat shock proteins, hsc70, hsp90b). In contrast, reduced developmental temperature decreased hypoxia tolerance but increased transcript levels of the hypoxia inducible factor hif1α in juvenile fish but the effects were less evident in older fish. Overall, we found no indication of developmental plasticity for thermal tolerance, but there was evidence of negative impacts of lower developmental temperature on hypoxia tolerance in juveniles associated with changes in gene expression, providing evidence of developmental plasticity across stressors and levels of organization., Competing Interests: Competing interests The authors declare no competing or financial interests., (© 2025. Published by The Company of Biologists.)