White Shrimp Hypoxia Tolerance: Implications of the Dead Zone

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The diverse nature of the Gulf of Mexico makes it home to many benthic organisms. However, the dead zone that forms each summer off the continental shelf, makes it hard to predict where these benthic organisms can survive and thus be located by the people that rely on them for their livelihoods. One of the Gulf’s most profitable inhabitants, the white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus), can be found around the edge of the dead zone edge, but it is unclear what the oxygen content of the water needs to be for the animal to survive, especially as water temperatures rise. We investigated the amount of environmental oxygen needed for white shrimp to survive at two different temperatures. One temperature represented current Gulf temperature (25^oC) while the other represented predicted temperature changes (29^oC). Respirometry chambers were used to record the percent air saturation and pCrit values (minimum environmental oxygen needed for normal respiration). We found that the elevated temperature required higher environmental oxygen levels. These results can be used to predict where white shrimp can survive around the dead zone based on water temperature.