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Institute of Biological Sciences, University of Wales Aberystwyth, Aberystwyth SY233DA,Wales, UK; 2Departamento de
Abstract
Compensatory growth (CG) is a phase of accelerated growth when favourable conditions are restored after a period of growth depression. CG reduces variance in size by
causing growth trajectories to converge and is important to sheries management,
aquaculture and life history analysis because it can oset the eects of growth arrests.
Compensatory growth has been demonstrated in both individually housed and
grouped sh, typically after growth depression has been induced by complete or partial
food deprivation. Partial, full and over-compensation have all been evoked in sh,
although over-compensation has only been demonstrated when cycles of deprivation
and satiation feeding have been imposed. Individually housed sh have shown that CG is
partlya response to hyperphagiawhen rates of food consumptionare signicantly higher
thanthose in shthat have notexperiencedgrowthdepression.The severityof thegrowth
depression increases the duration of the hyperphagic phase rather than maximum daily
feeding rate. In many studies, growth eciencies were higher during CG. Changes in
metabolic rate and swimming activity have not been demonstrated yet to playa role.
Periods of food deprivation induce changes in the storage reserves, particularly lipids,
of sh. Apart from the strong evidence for the restoration of somatic growth trajectories, CG is a response to restore lipid levels. Although several neuro-peptides, including neuropeptide-Y, are probably involved in the control of appetite, their role and the
role of hormones, such as growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF),
in the hyperphagia associated with CG are still unclear.
The advantages of CG probably relate to size dependencies of mortality, fecundityand
diet that are characteristic of teleosts. These size dependencies favour a recovery from
the eects of growth depression if environmental factors allow. High growth rates
may also impose costs, including adverse eects on future development, growth, reproduction and swimming performance. Hyperphagia may lead to riskier behaviour in
the presence of predators. CGs evolutionary consequences are largely unexplored. An
understanding of why animals grow at rates below their physiological capacity, an evaluation of the costs of rapid growth and the identication of the constraints on growth
trajectories represent major challenges for life-history theory.
Correspondence:
R J Wootton,
Institute of
Biological Sciences,
University of Wales
Aberystwyth,
Aberystwyth SY23
3DA,Wales, UK
Tel.:
44 1970 622346
Fax:
44 1970 622350
E-mail:
rjw@aber.ac.uk
Present address:
Institute of Pure &
Applied Biology,
Bahauddin
Zakariya
University, Multan,
Pakistan
Introduction
148
149
Degree of compensation
149
Focus of compensation
150
147
150
155
Experimental studies
155
Field studies
157
158
158
162
Ontogenetic changes
162
Seasonal variation
163
164
165
165
Hyperphagia
166
166
168
168
169
Growth eciency
170
171
Lipids
171
172
Carbohydrates
173
Water content
173
Endocrines
173
174
174
175
176
Size-dependent mortality
176
176
176
177
177
178
179
Acknowledgements
181
References
181
Introduction
Many organisms exhibit faster growth during recovery from total or partial food deprivation than they
do during periods of continuous food availability
(Wilson and Osbourn 1960; Jobling1994). The consequence is that animals experiencing a period of
148
Focus of compensation
Table 1 Taxonomic distribution of studies on growth compensation in teleosts and incidence of full compensation (FC), partial compensation (PC), over-compensation (OvC) and absence of
compensation (AC), where information is available.
Methods/experimental protocol
Manipulated factor
Effect
Response variable
Reference
Clupeidae
Clupea harengus (Herring)
C. harengus
C. harengus
Food supply
Food supply
None
FC
AC
PC
Salmonidae
Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon)
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
None
Food supply
Food supply
Food supply
Temperature
Salinity
None
None
Food supply,
temperature
Food supply
Temperature
Food supply
Food supply
FC
PC
FC
PC
PC
FC
PC
PC
FC, PC
Length
Mass
Lipid content
Mass
Mass
Mass
Length
Length
Length, mass
Skilbrei (1990)
Thorpe et al. (1990)
Metcalfe and Thorpe (1992)
Reimers et al. (1993)
Mortensen and Damsgard (1993)
Damsgard and Arnesen (1998)
Nicieza and Brana (1993a,b)
Nicieza et al. (1994a)
Nicieza and Metcalfe (1997)
FC
FC
PC, FC
PC, FC
Lipid content
Length
Length, lipid content
Food
Food
Food
Food
Body components
Mass
Mass
Mass
PC
FC,PC
FC
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
S. salar
Group-housed,
Group-housed,
Group-housed,
Group-housed,
juveniles
juveniles
juveniles
postsmolts
151
Oncorhynchus kisutch
(Coho salmon)
Oncorhynchus nerka
(Sockye salmon)
supply
supply
supply
supply
Food supply
Food supply
Food supply
H2O2 prophylactic
treatment
Group-housed
Food supply
FC
Mass
Group-housed
Food supply
PC, FC
Mass
Tor putitora
Labeo rohita,
Cirrhina mrigala, Catla catla
Cyprinus carpio
Cyprinus carpio
Scardinus erythropthalmus (rudd),
Leuciscus cephalus (chub)
Chalcalburnus chalcoides mento
(Danubian bleak)
Phoxinus phoxinus
(European minnow)
Methods/experimental protocol
Manipulated factor
Effect
Response variable
Reference
Individually housed
Group-housed, cycles of deprivation and refeeding
Group-housed
Food supply
Food supply
Temperature
PC
PC
PC
Mass
Mass
Mass
Group-housed
Food supply
Mass
Group-housed
Food supply
FC
Mass
PC, FC
Length
Zivkov (1982)
Length
Zivkov (1996)
Mass
Food supply
NC
Group-housed
Group-housed
Group-housed
Food supply
Food supply
Mass
Individually housed
Food supply
NC, FC
Mass
Phoxinus phoxinus
Rutilus rutilus
Individually housed
Group-housed
Food supply
Food supply
FC
Group-housed
Food supply
FC
Mass
Mass, enzyme
concentrations
Mass
Individually housed
Group-housed
Food supply
FC
Mass
152
Table 1 continued
Ictaluridae
Ictalurus puntatus, Channel catfish
I. punctatus
I. punctatus
Heterobranchus longifilis
(African catfish)
Group-housed
Group-housed, cycles of deprivation
Group-housed, cycles of deprivation
Group-housed, single deprivation and cyclic
deprivation
Cyprinodontidae
Cypronodon nevadensis
Group-housed
Gadidae
Gadus morhua (Atlantic cod)
G. morhua
Food
Food
Food
Food
supply
supply
supply
supply
FC
FC
NC
PC, FC
Mass
Mass
Mass
Mass
Food supply
NC, FC
Mass
Beacham (1981)
Jobling et al. (1994)
Full-compensation
Food supply
FC
Mass
Cichlidae
Oreochromis mossambicus
O. mossambicus
O. mossambicus
O. mossambicus
O. niloticus
O. niloticus
O. mossambicus O. niloticus hybrids
Group-housed
Group-housed
Group-housed
Group-housed
Group-held, juveniles
Group-housed
Group-housed in sea water
Temperature
Gonad size
Sparidae
Pagrus pagrus
Carcharhinidae
Trichiurus japonicus
Natural population
Gasterosteidae
Gasterosteus aculeatus
(three-spined stickleback)
Food supply
Density
Density
Food supply
FC
FC
PC, FC
Mass
Mass
Mass
Chmilevskii (1994)
Chmilevskii (1998)
Chmilevskii (1996)
Christensen and McLean (1998)
Vera-Cruz and Mair (1994)
Basiao et al. (1996)
Wang et al. (2002)
FC
Mass
Length
Centropomidae
Lates calcarifer
Anarhicadidae
Anarhicas minor
Group-housed
Oxygen concentration
Mass
Percichthyidae
Golden perch, Macquaria ambigua
Group-housed
Food supply
Lipid, protein
153
Natural population
Group-housed, cycles of deprivation and
single deprivation
Methods/experimental protocol
Manipulated factor
Effect
Response variable
Reference
Food supply
PC, FC
Mass
Centrarchidae
Lepomis cyanellus L. macrochirus
(hybrid sunfish)
L. cyanellus L. macrochirus
Food supply
OvC, FC, PC
Mass
Food supply
PC
Mass
Pomatomidae
Pomatomus saltatrix
Group-housed
Percidae
Perca flavescens Yellow perch
Pleuronectidae
Pleuronectes americanus
(Winter flounder)
P. americanus
Hippoglossus hipoglossus
Pleuronectus asper
(Alaska yellowfin sole)
PC
Group-housed
Food supply
Food supply
PC
Length
Length
Mass
154
Table 1 continued
the degrees of freedom used for testing the experimental eect (Ruohonen et al. 2001).
The use of grouped sh also introduces two more
factors that are usually ignored in the analysis and
interpretation: density and numerical abundance.
Any conclusions from a study will strictly be valid
only for the density of sh used unless density is
deliberately manipulated as an experimental factor.
If density is manipulated, care needs to be taken to
avoid changing numerical abundance simultaneously. Equally, an experimental manipulation of
numerical abundance per group as a factor must
avoid changing density. In some studies of compensatory growth, the numerical size of groups in tanks
has been reduced during an experiment to provide
intermediate samples. This manipulation introduces
another confounding factor, changing both density
and numerical abundance simultaneously. The use
of individually housed sh, if they do not show pathological behaviours, avoids all these problems.
Growth and consumption rates have an allometric
relationship to body mass in sh (Jobling 1994;
Wootton 1998). Size-specic rates tend to decline
with size. Fish that have experienced growth depression will be smaller than control sh, and so may
exhibit higher specic growth and consumption
rates simply because of allometry. Consequently,
comparisons for these variables between control and
experimental sh should be made for sh of approximately the same size, either by experimental manipulation or by covariance adjustment.
A third problem, particularly with earlier studies,
is the failure to use appropriate statistical analyses.
A common error was the use of serial t-tests to make
multiple comparisons where analysis of variance
with preplanned contrasts was required (Underwood
1997). In some studies, a series of analyses of variance
have been used, where repeated-measures anova
should have been used to analyse changes in growth
and consumption over time.
These problems mean that some highly cited studies may not have demonstrated real growth compensation, but simply the plasticity of sh growth in
relation to environmental variables, including food
availability, sh density and abundance, social interactions and even unique tank eects. Table 2 provides a critique of methodologies of some studies
considered in further detail below. Despite these diculties, which are not unique to studies of compensatory growth, the body of experimental evidence
suggests that compensatory growth in sh is a real
phenomenon.
155
Species studied
Experimental design
Statistical analysis
Reference
Oncorhynchus nerka
O. mykiss
O. mykiss
Salvelinus alpinus
O. mykiss
Salmo salar
Phoxinus phoxinus
Ictalurus punctatus
Pleuronectes platessa
156
Table 2 Survey of experimental designs and analyses in a selection of studies on compensatory growth in sh.
Gasterosteus aculeatus
S. salar
Gasterosteus aculeatus,
P. phoxinus
O. mykiss
Scophthalmus maximus
Salmo salar
Field studies
imposed on individually housed minnows, threespined sticklebacks, gibel carp and Chinese longsnout catsh Leiocassis longirostris (Bagridae; Xie
et al., unpublished data; Wu et al. 2003). At the end of
the experiment, the sticklebacks had achieved full
compensation (Fig. 4a), but the gibel carp, the catsh
and the minnows had shown only partial compensation (Fig. 4b). Such experimental protocols can evaluate the capacity of sh to buer the eects of
alternating periods of high and low food availability.
When three-spined sticklebacks were exposed to 1, 2
or 6 days of deprivation followed by 2 days of satiation feeding for 56 days, the sh showed a partial
compensatory response that increased in expression
over the length of the experiment. The sticklebacks
on the 2-day deprivation regime almost matched the
growth of the control, although fed at half the frequency (Ali and Wootton 2001).
Partial compensatory growth has been reported
for group-housed sh subjected to cycles of deprivation and refeeding. In Arctic charr deprived for either
1, 1.5 or 3 weeks and then fed for the same length of
time in an experiment lasting for 24 weeks, the
deprived sh showed partial compensatory growth.
After 6 weeks of unrestricted feeding at the end of
the experiment, there was no signicant dierence
in the mean masses of the deprived sh, irrespective
of the previous feeding pattern, although they were
smaller than the control sh fed daily throughout
the experiment (Jobling et al. 1993). In contrast,
groups of cod experiencing cycles of 3-week feeding
and 3-week deprivation did not show a compensatory growth response (Jobling et al.1994). Frequently,
symmetrical cycles of deprivation and refeeding do
produce partial compensation (e.g. Aranyakananda
et al.1996; Christensen and McLean1998). The inconsistency of results when using grouped sh is illustrated by laboratory studies on the channel catsh.
When groups were exposed to three cycles, each consisting of 3 days of deprivation and 11 days of satiation feeding, the deprived sh showed full
compensation by the end of the 6 weeks (Gaylord
and Gatlin 2001). But in a comparable experiment in
which catsh experienced 3, 5 or 7 days of deprivation in each 14-day cycle, even the sh experiencing
the lowest level of deprivation failed to show compensation (Gaylord et al. 2001).
The frequency of food provision (or inversely, the
frequency and duration of food shortage) can have a
decisive inuence on sh growth. If the periods of
food deprivation are short and sucient food is available between the starvation episodes, a hyperphagic
161
response when food is present can prevent measurable growth depression; so, the growth patterns of
continuously fed and temporarily deprived sh are
virtually indistinguishable. In this case, behavioural
compensation occurs before feeding restriction can
result in detectable growth depression. This has been
demonstrated in immature three-spined sticklebacks
for deprivation periods with a mean length of 3 days
(Ali and Wootton 1998; Ali et al. 1998). No dierences
in growth, food conversion eciency or body composition were detected between rainbow trout held in
groups fed daily and three times per week. Trout
experiencing two lower rations, being fed twice or
once per week, were signicantly smaller than those
fed daily (Teskeredzic et al. 1995). Compensatory
growth may not be evoked if the food restriction
exceeds a certain severity (Wilson and Osbourn
1960; Ryan 1990). Small, juvenile sockeye salmon
starved for 1^3 weeks caught up with control sh
over 7 weeks of refeeding, but sh starved for longer
did not (Bilton and Robins1973).
Some aspects of the factors controlling the magnitude of the compensatory response remain obscure.
There is a limited understanding of how the compensatory process depends on the factor evoking growth
depression. Growth reductions associated with temperature change can elicit compensatory growth
(Mortensen and DamsgQrd 1993; Chmilevskii 1994;
Nicieza and Metcalfe 1997; Maclean and Metcalfe
2001; Purchase and Brown 2001). However, some
studies have reported important dierences between
the growth patterns observed after a period of low
temperatures and a period of food shortage. The time
lag between cessation of the cause of growth depression and the start of the compensatory response
seems to be greater for temperature than for foodinduced growth arrest (Nicieza and Metcalfe 1997;
Maclean and Metcalfe 2001). Dierent forms of
growth reduction can aect other processes (e.g.
reproductive investment, storage, hormonal control)
dierentially, which suggests that there may be dierences in both the temporal pattern of compensation
and the nal outcome in terms of body size.
Inuence of social factors
Density and social interactions also have consequences for compensatory growth. In juvenile tilapia,
Oreochromis niloticus (Cichlidae), relative growth
losses caused by crowding conditions were rapidly
eliminated when the sh were returned to lower, control densities (Vera-Cruz and Mair 1994; Basiao et al.
162
period required was longer. On refeeding, the summer group showed compensatory growth both in
length and in fat when compared with control sh.
In contrast, the autumn sh recovered their fat content, but their growth in length did not dier from
control sh.
Sexual maturation and reproduction
Environmental conditions and nutritional status
may have strong modifying eects on maturation
and fecundity in sh (Wootton 1982, 1998). Conversely, the allocation of energy to gonad production
and increased activity associated with reproduction
(e.g. migration, defense, access to mates) results in
growth arrest. However, there have been no systematic experimental studies on compensatory growth in
relation to reproduction, and no coherent picture
has emerged.
In some species, like Oreochromis mossambicus
(Cichlidae), low temperatures reduce growth rates
and delay gonad development. Transfer to optimal
temperatures induces growth compensation, but
maturation is still delayed in comparison to sh that
did not experience the lowered temperatures (Chmilevskii1994). In salmonids, the physiological decision
to mature may be dependent on some measures of
the rate of storage or turnover of surplus energy
exceeding a threshold value during a limited season
(Thorpe 1986). The value for this threshold is not
known, nor is the precise season or its duration,
although there are some clues to both. For example,
lipid levels in winter and spring may inuence the
initiation and progression of maturation of salmon
parr (Rowe et al.1991). A series of studies investigated
the eect of food restriction on the precocial maturation of male Atlantic salmon (Rowe and Thorpe
1990; Thorpe et al. 1990; Rowe et al. 1991). These
experiments found evidence of growth compensation. However, some schedules of deprivation and
refeeding did reduce the proportion of maturing
males. Eects on the proportion of maturing females
were more pronounced. Similarly, Reimers et al.
(1993) starved second sea winter farmed Atlantic salmon through February and March. Starved sh
showed partial compensation in growth, but the incidence of maturation was reduced by 48% among
females and 32% among males. In Arctic charr,
cycles of alternating periods of deprivation and feeding over a 24-week period followed by 6 weeks of
feeding produced no signicant dierences in the
proportion of mature males at the end of the experi164
sticklebacks experiencing regular or irregular intervals between feeding did not dier in mean date of
rst spawning and fecundity from females fed daily
(Ali andWootton1999); in this case, females compensated for days without food by showing hyperphagia
on days they were fed. The second scenario is more
puzzling and refers to a direct compensation of the
potential reduction in reproductive output associated with a smaller body size. An example is the
study by Siems and Sikes (1998) on the eects of predictable and unpredictable food availability on male
and female fathead minnows, Pimephales promelas
(Cyprinidae). Males that were switched from an
unpredictable to a predictable food supply at an age
of 75 days showed compensatory growth after the
switch. Females on the unpredictable food supply
were smaller than females on a predictable supply
(i.e. they had not exhibited full compensation), but
even so the former started spawning at the same age
and had the same mean production of eggs, which
indicates a direct compensation of the reproductive
output by increasing reproductive investment per
unit of somatic mass.
Compensatory growth of body components
Figure 5 Potential problems in analysing the
consequences of compensatory growth on reproductive
parameters. For clarity, we assumed linear growth and timeconstrained reproduction, and used the rate of maturation
as response variable. T1 andT2 dene the start and
termination of a period of growth depression, andT3
indicates the end of the phase of compensation. R and R0
represent alternative time-windows for maturation. (a)
Compensating (broken line) and noncompensating
(thick line) individuals have experienced dierent
conditions which could have direct or indirect (e.g. if
maturation rate is size dependent) eects on maturation
rate. The eect of the compensatory process on the rate of
maturation can only be evaluated if decision to mature
occurs afterT3 (case R0); (b) after a period of growth
depression, some individuals show compensatory growth
(broken line) whereas others do not compensate
(thick line) and the control growth rate (dotted line).
Comparison of compensating and noncompensating
individuals to detect direct inuence of compensatory rates
on the rate of maturation is justied at both R and
R0. If the decision to start maturation takes place at any time
betweenT2 andT3, allocation and size (only if size
dependence is assumed) eects can be evaluated. AfterT3,
dierences can be attributed to size eects or
impairment of the reproductive/hormonal function
associated with a previous episode of very fast
growth.
# 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, F I S H and F I S H E R I E S, 4, 147^190
167
ambiguous. It could be an indication that the compensation of structural growth (sensu Broekhuizen
et al. 1994) takes priority over allocation to storage,
but may be a direct by-product of dierences in diet
composition. In rainbow trout, the energy content of
the diet supplied in both the pre- and postdeprivation
period had no eect on daily energy intake during
the compensatory growth phase (Boujard et al.
2000).
Physiological basis of hyperphagia: consumption,
absorption, and evacuation rates
Rate of food consumption in sh is related to the rate
at which the gut is lled and evacuated (Brett 1971;
Elliott1975a,b; Grove et al.1985; Singh and Srivastava
1985; Russell and Wootton 1993). Under some conditions of temperature and food availability, intake
rates will be limited by the maximal rate at which
food can be digested. An elevation of the maximal
rate (i.e. a reduction of the passage time of food
through the digestive tract) would contribute to a
greater hyperphagic response. Whether the rate of
gut evacuation can change directly in response to a
period of growth depression is not known. The diculty rests on disentangling the potential direct eect
and the decrease in passage time associated with
increased ingestion (Elliott 1972; Nicieza et al.
1994b). In the European minnows, there was no signicant dierence between the rates of foregut evacuation of the rst satiation meal fed after 4 or
16 days of starvation (Russell and Wootton 1993).
There was no evidence that the increase in food consumption that followed a deprivation period (Russell
and Wootton 1992) was associated with changes in
the rate of gut evacuation. A greater absorption eciency during compensatory growth (Russell 1991)
did not result from a dierence in the rate of processing of ingested food in the foregut, although there
was some evidence of a longer retention time in the
hindgut. Studies incorporating a short (48 h), preprandial starvation had no detectable eect on subsequent evacuation rates in Atlantic salmon (Talbot
et al. 1984). In brown trout, a starvation period of up
to 7 days prior to feeding did not aect evacuation
rates, although periods of 10 days or more did reduce
the rate (Elliott 1972). Similarly, a decreased rate of
evacuation occurred in Pleuronectes platessa (Pleuronectidae) after 30 days of starvation (Goddard1974).
In European minnows, the decline in gut contents
after a meal is correlated with return of appetite
(Russell and Wootton 1993), a correlation also found
# 2003 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, F I S H and F I S H E R I E S, 4, 147^190
that the growth compensation in the refeeding period was entirelycaused byan improvement in growth
eciency and not hyperphagia.
In mammals, the brain neuropeptides galanin (stimulatory) and leptin (inhibitory) have been implicated in the control of an appetite for lipid (Hoebel
1997). Their roles in teleosts are still to be claried
(Hoebel 1997; Le Bail and Boeuf 1997; DePedro
and Bjornsson 2001), although Silverstein and
Plisetskaya (2000) detected no eect of injection of a
fragment of rat leptin into the brain of channel catsh
on appetite.
Protein and RNA:DNA ratios
In sh, muscle RNA concentrations, because of the
role of RNA in protein synthesis, reect dierent
somatic growth rates induced by dierent levels of
feedings (Buckley 1979; Westerman and Holt 1988;
Bastrop et al.1991). In juvenile Atlantic salmon, RNA
concentrations and the RNA:DNA ratio responded
to three levels of reduced ration representing 0, 20
and 50% of the control level imposed for a maximum
of 8 days (Arndt et al. 1996). By day 4 of restriction,
the starved group had signicantly lower RNA concentrations than control sh. By day 8, all four ration
levels were reected in RNA concentrations. For salmon starved or fed a 20% ration for 4 days, the RNA
levels recovered close to control levels after 4 days of
refeeding, although for the starved sh, the
RNA:DNA ratio was a better indicator of refeeding.
Ornthine decarboxylase (ODC, the enzyme that plays
a rate-limiting role in polyamine synthesis, which
reects protein synthesis) activity also dropped sharply during food restriction. ODC activity increased
rapidly after feeding was returned to the level of the
control group and showed some evidence of overcompensation in the refeeding period (Arndt et al.
1996). Unfortunately, the length of this promising
experiment was too short for compensatory growth
to be clearly displayed. In Arctic charr subject to
regimes of food restriction and re-alimentation,
RNA:DNA ratios in muscle and liver correlated with
the specic growth rate (Miglavs and Jobling 1989b).
However, the growth rates during the compensatory
growth phase were higher than those that would have
been predicted from the RNA:DNA ratios observed.
In carp, food deprivation reduced cell size of liver
(estimated indirectly), but not of white muscle. This
reduction was associated with a decrease in soluble
and total protein concentrations (Bastrop et al.1991).
Starved carp had lower white muscle RNA and liver
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concentrations, hepatic T3 content and hepatic 50 monodeiodinase activity were measured in rainbow
trout subjected to a sustained fast for up to 8 weeks,
and during an 8-week refeeding period. Dierences
in growth rate between fed and fasted groups were
evident after 2 weeks, but signicant mass loss by
fasted groups was not evident until between 4 and
6 weeks into the fast. Liver protein content was
depressed inthe fasted shwithin 2 days of food deprivation. Interrenal activity suggested a depressed pituitary^interrenal axis in fasted animals.Within1 day of
refeeding, plasma cortisol levels had increased to
levels characteristic of controls. The status of thyroid
hormones indicated by plasma thyroid hormone level,
liver T3 content, hepatic 50 -monodeiodinase (MD)
activity and thyroid epithelial cell height also indicated a depressed pituitary^thyroid axis in fasted
animals, with recovery to levels of the fed animals
within 1 week. Despite compensatory changes in
accumulation of reserves (as indicated bya compensatory increase in hepatosomatic index), there were no
apparent compensatory changes in any of the endocrine variables evident during the refeeding period
(Farbridge and Leatherland 1992a,b; Farbridge et al.
1992; Leatherland and Farbridge1992).
In channel catsh, Gaylord et al. (2001) recorded a
decline in plasma T3 and T4 with food deprivation
for as few as 3 days, with a subsequent rapid recovery
on refeeding. However, in this experiment, there was
no evidence of hyperphagia during the refeeding
period.
In carp fasted for 2 months followed by 12 days of
refeeding, plasma insulin levels decreased twofold
and plasma glucagon threefold over the rst 8 days
of fasting and remained low in the second phase
(from day 8 onwards of fasting).Twelve days of refeeding produced a higher daily growth rate than in controls and a recovery of plasma insulin and glucagon
levels (Blasco et al.1992a,b).
In salmonids, exogenous treatment with GH can
induce increased appetite and growth rates in excess
of those normally observed (McLean et al. 1992; Le
Bail et al. 1993; Johnsson and Bjornsson 1994;
Johnsson et al. 1996, 1999). This mimics compensatory growth. The eect of GH on growth rates is at
least partly mediated through the production of insulin-like growth factor (IGF) by the liver as a response
to circulating GH. This response depends on the presence of growth hormone receptors (GHR) in the liver
cells. At least in some species, low food levels inhibit
the stimulation of IGF by GH, while levels of GH in
the blood plama increase (Perez-Sanchez and Le Bail
174
Nicieza and Metcalfe (1997) found that compensatory growth continued after the deprived sh had
attained the same length^mass relationship as control sh. This suggests that compensatory growth is
more than just the readjustment of the ratio of
reserve to structural tissue. In cod, the early phase
of compensatory growth was characterised by
growth of swimming muscle rather than more
obviously reserve tissue such as liver or visceral fat
(Jobling et al. 1994). In the three-spined sticklebacks,
preliminary estimates of the characteristics of compensatory growth did not suggest that the growth of
reserve material (lipids) had precedence over protein
growth (Zhu et al. 2001). The time resolution of the
studies on cod and sticklebacks may have been too
coarse to detect short-term shifts in the rate of
growth of reserve and structural material. Strikingly,
when compensatory growth in rainbow trout was
entirely a consequence of increased growth eciencyand not hyperphagia, no eect of lipid reserves
on appetite was detected (Boujard et al. 2000).
Model based on specic growth rate
Hubbell (1971) developed a model of growth regulation in animals based on control theory. It assumed
that individuals had an optimal growth trajectory. If
the growth rate falls so that the individual grows
slower than the optimal trajectory, compensatory
changes are induced that reduce the error between
the optimum and achieved growth rate. The model
does not seek to identify the mechanisms by which
the control is achieved, but it does provide a theoretical framework within which such mechanisms could
be sought. This model was used to interpret the compensatory growth patterns of the European minnows
(Russell and Wootton1992).
The multifactorial control of appetite (Hoebel1997;
Le Bail and Boeuf 1997; DePedro and Bjornsson
2001) suggests that the control of compensatory
growth may be equally complex and may depend on
the eect that the period of deprivation has had on
body composition. There may be dierent trajectories
of recovery for the carbohydrate, lipid and protein
components of the body. The roles of hyperphagia
and increased growth eciency may also depend on
whether the preceding food deprivation was total or
partial (Boujard et al. 2000). If so, this complexity
needs to be reected in the models. There is a need to
integrate the general control theory framework
developed by Hubbell (1971) with models of the control of appetite such as provided by DePedro and
175
levels of uctuating asymmetry, suggesting a developmental cost of rapid growth. In Atlantic salmon,
the prevalence and severity of coronary arteriosclerosis has been associated with high growth rates,
especially those associated with the marine phase of
the salmon life cycle (Saunders et al. 1992). None of
these studies explicitly analysed the costs of compensatory growth.
Conditions leading to rapid growth can inuence
muscle cellularity and development, and consequently function. Christiansen et al. (1992) noted that
rapidly growing Arctic charr sometimes showed a
distinctive pattern of damage in their white swimming muscle. Unusually fast-growing coho salmon,
which had been genetically manipulated by the
insertion of copies of a gene for growth hormone,
showed a trade-o between growth and swimming
performance (Farrell et al. 1997). In Menidia menidia,
interpopulation comparisons and manipulations of
growth rates within populations indicated that there
was a trade-o between growth rate and swimming
performance (Billerbeck et al. 2001): faster growing
silversides had a poorer prolonged and burst swimming performance. A cost in locomotion performance has also been described in the sablesh,
whose reduced compensatory ability appears to be
mediated bya diversion of energy otherwise allocated
to forced swimming (Sogard and Olla 2002).
One study has explicitly linked compensatory
growth with delayed but measurable growth costs
(Morgan and Metcalfe 2001). Grouped juvenile
Atlantic salmon that had shown full compensation
in autumn after a period of food deprivation showed
signicantly lower growth rates and lipid reserves
the following spring than continuously fed controls,
although food was freely available. The study also
suggested a cost to future reproduction. The male salmon that had shown compensatory growth also had
lower subsequent rates of sexual maturation in the
following autumn. However, female three-spined
sticklebacks exposed to alternating short-term periods of deprivation and refeeding in the month before
the breeding season started spawning at the same
time, at the same size and had the same fecundity
at rst spawning as females fed ad libtum (Ali and
Wootton1999).
The hyperphagia usually associated with compensatory growth may also impose behavioural costs.
Increased foraging may expose the animal to a
greater risk of predation. Foraging coho salmon juveniles showing compensatory growth were bolder in
the presence of a potential predator than control sh
178
(DamsgQrd and Dill 1998). Rainbow trout exogenously treated with GH, which induced an increased
appetite, showed increased boldness in the presence
of a model heron (Jonsson et al. 1996), as did transgenic Atlantic salmon with enhanced growth rates
(Abrahams and Sutterlin 1999). Fast-growing Atlantic silversides were more vulnerable to predation by
piscivorous shes (Lankford et al. 2001). Hyperphagia
may also induce higher levels of intraspecifc aggression as individuals compete for food, with associated
costs in terms of higher rates of energy expenditure
and increased risk of mortality. Food-deprived Atlantic salmon juveniles did show increased levels of
aggression during their compensatory growth phase
(Nicieza and Metcalfe 1997). Fast-growing juvenile
Atlantic salmon were more aggressive than slowgrowing sh, but they were also more vulnerable to
being attacked (Nicieza and Metcalfe1999).
Compensatory growth as a by-product of
flexible growth and dynamic trade-offs
Compensatory growth can be interpreted as a consequence of a dynamic process of optimising the allocation of resources between structural, storage and
gonadal growth, maintenance and energy-consuming activities such as foraging and predator avoidance (Sibly and Calow 1986; Nicieza and Metcalfe
1997). The extent of the development of a compensatory growth response should reect the balance
between the costs associated with increased growth
rates and the benets of regaining a growth trajectory and an appropriate balance between structural
and reserve materials.
Compensatory growth shows a diversity of forms.
In some conditions, it simply restores lost reserves,
or it may restore the growth trajectory in length or
mass, or it may consist of a combination of reserve
and somatic growth. Several hypotheses address this
diversity (Metcalfe et al. 2002). First, the model of
Broekhuizen et al. (1994) is a nutritional state hypothesis, predicting a consistent compensatory response
to a given decit in the ratio of storage to structural
materials. Second, there may be physiological constraints on the compensatory response that can be
mounted, so dierent responses occur depending on
the environmental circumstances. An example
would be low temperatures that depress appetite to
such an extent that a compensatory growth response
cannot be mounted. A third hypothesis is that compensatory responses are adaptive and vary facultatively according to ontogenetic stage, nutritional
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