Behavioural response to the increase of environmental temperature in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Anthropic activities are causing severe damages on the natural environment from climate change to habitat destruction. The animal’s first response to natural and anthropic environmental changes is behavioural and therefore behaviour can be considered a link between physiological and ecological processes. Water temperature is an important environmental parameter influencing the distribution and the health of fish and it plays acentral role in ectothermic animals affecting their physiology andbehaviour. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) is a poikiloterm and euriterm cyprinid that in the natural environment is subject to seasonal and daily thermal fluctuations and it could be a good model to study the effects of the water temperature change on the central nervous system and animal behaviour. Our group demonstrated that housing adult zebrafish in cold (18°C) and warm (34°C)water for 21 days strongly affects the brain proteome and fishbehaviour. This work aims to further investigate the effect of increasing water temperature in adult zebrafish maintained for 21 days at 26°C (control) and 34°C (treatment) on anxiety, social preference and aggressive behaviour. The results confirm that heat treatment alters the behaviour of the zebrafish that spends more time in potentially risky environment such as the top area, the uncovered and bright area and zones far from the social group. This behavioural alteration in the wild could expose the animal to an increase in predatory attacks and reduce its survival rate.