Oxygen consumption at different temperatures in YOY crayfish: a comparison between indigenous and invasive species.

A flow-through respirometer was used to determine oxygen uptake rates at the temperatures of 16, 20 and 24 °C in YOY crayfish of the indigenous Austropotamobius pallipes and the invasive Procambarus clarkii. In the former species, oxygen uptake increased with temperature, whereas the standard metabolism of P. clarkii showed to be lowly thermally dependent, at least within the analysed temperatures. Procambarus clarkii’s lower metabolic sensitivity towards temperature favours its ability to survive thermal stresses and is one of the biological features that explain this species’ invasive potential.