Seasonal variations in the physiological stress response to discrete bouts of aerial exposure in the little skate, Leucoraja erinacea

Aerial exposure and acute thermal stress have been shown to elicit profound physiological disruptions in obligate water-breathing teleosts. However, no study has investigated these responses in an elasmobranch. To address this, venous blood samples were collected and evaluated from little skates (Leucoraja erinacea) subjected to discrete aerial exposure durations (0, 15, and 50 min) coupled with differing abrupt thermal changes (gradient between seawater and air; winter: ΔT = − 3 °C; summer: ΔT = + 9 °C) in two distinct laboratory studies. In general, blood acid–base properties (e.g. decline in pH; elevation in PCO2) and select metabolites (elevated whole-blood lactate) and electrolytes (elevated plasma K+) were significantly disrupted by aerial exposure, and were most disturbed after skates were exposed to air for 50 min. However, the magnitude of the blood acid–base perturbations, metabolic contribution to the resulting blood acidosis, elevations to ionic and metabolic parameters, and delayed mortality were more extreme during the summer study, suggesting that acute thermal stress exacerbates the physiological impairments associated with aerial exposure in little skates. Conversely, a reduced thermal gradient (from seawater to air) may attenuate the magnitude of metabolic and ionic perturbations, resulting in a high physiological threshold for coping with extended aerial exposure.