The Effects of Mass Temperature and Thermal Acclimation on The Respiration Rate of The Chinese Freshwater Crab Eriocheir sinensis (Crustacea:Decapod)

A respiration rate compensation throught thermal acclimation is demonstrated by E.sinensis with 25℃ acclimated animals having lower respiration rate than 10℃ acclimated animals.Eyestalk factors are found to be involved in rate compensation.Acute heating E.sinensis does not creat a R-T response following the vant Hoff-Arrhenius law.At lower temperatures (10-16℃),both 10℃ and 25℃ acclimated animals show mean Q10 values higher than 2.At higher temperatures (16-30℃),both 10℃ and 25℃ acclimated animals are not sensitive to temperature,having Q10 values smaller than 2,suggesting that rate compensation does not take place exclusively through long term thermal acclimation and that it can also occur very quickly in face of acute changes in temperature.In this case,the rate compensation may involve a new category of mechanisms.