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The physical habitat requirements of cover, depth, and current speed for brown trout are associated with high shear zones in stream flows, which in turn result in high turbulence. Observations were made on current speeds and turbulence intensity (TI) in a sand-bed trout stream. Exemplary transects showed that current speeds ranged from 0 to 60 cm/s and that TI ranged from 0 to 0.7. Turbulence intensity was inversely related to current speed. Brown trout were usually found in the lower 5 cm of the stream, where shear forces result in high turbulence. Locations occupied by brown trout had lower TI than similar locations without brown trout but higher TI than is typical of an average stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As aquatic vertebrates increase in size, hydrofoils, which use lift to generate thrust, are increasingly used as propulsors. One factor affecting the magnitude of the lift force is the area of the propulsor. Resistance to cruising and sprints is mainly due to drag, but inertia is important during maneuvers when animals accelerate or turn. The inertia of the body and entrained water, which is proportional to body volume, resists acceleration. Because a thrust that is proportional to surface area is used to maneuver a resistance that is proportional to volume, acceleration performance and maneuverability are expected to decline with increasing size, This trend is ameliorated to some extent by the high swimming speeds attainable by warm-bodied vertebrates and the reduced resistance to acceleration characteristic of the skeletons of dolphins and ichthyosaurs. Maneuvers are essential for capture of elusive prey and avoidance of predators. As they increase in size, aquatic vertebrates use various means to ensure that their prey are less maneuverable than they. These include consumption of increasingly smaller prey relative to predator body size (culminating in filter feeding by the largest aquatic vertebrates); behaviors to concentrate, disturb, and disorient prey; and ambushing or suction feeding that avoid whole-body acceleration. Advantages of warm muscles are seen in the ability of endotherms to take more maneuverable prey than can ectotherms of the same size. Young stages of large aquatic vertebrates could be especially vulnerable to predators; viviparity or spawning in productive patches provides for rapid growth through vulnerable stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Routine activities of early life history stages of fishes occur in an intermediate hydrodynamic environment (as identified by Reynolds numbers), between a zone where drag is linearly dependent on velocity and resistive forces make large contributions to thrust, and a zone where inertial forces dominate except in the boundary layer immediately adjacent to the body surface. Sprint performance carries larvae into this latter zone; thus, locomotor activities important for survival of both larvae and adults occur in the same hydrodynamic environment and similar selective pressures would be expected to influence locomotor morphology of larvae and adults. The simplest framework for evaluating and interpreting development of larvae recognizes the parental form as the developmental terminus and uses adult forms as references to identify similarities and discrepancies in larva structure. Three measures of locomotor structure are used to examine changes during development: (a) the ratio of caudal peduncle depth to maximum body depth, which is small in thunniform fish; (b) a body shape factor, which is small in chaetodontiform fishes; and (c) a transient swimming thrust factor, which is large in esociform fish. Similarities in form are found in yolk-bearing larvae and are attributed to oxygen demand. Similarities in the pattern of development of larvae directly towards the parental form are found for fusiform species, except for delayed development of the caudal fin in tunas that probably is due to the hydrodynamic regime of the tail. Convergence with parents does not occur during the larva stage of deep-bodied, compressed species. This is attributed to high drag of compressed forms at low Reynolds numbers and diet differences between larvae and parents. Although this framework is successful in identifying and interpreting problems, comparative studies of form, kinematics, and performance during biologically important activities are essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]