Blood oxygenation in shortfin eels during swimming and hypoxia: Influence of the root effect

Blood samples were withdrawn from dorsal aortic cannulae in shortfin eels before, during, and after acute exposure to hypoxia and to forced swimming. Both hypoxia (PIO₂ < 40 mm Hg) and forced swimming at 24 cm s^‐1 abolished apnoeic periods and increased ventilation. The fall in PaCO₂with hyperventilation, raised pH and thus increased the oxygen carrying capacity of arterial blood. The Root effect influences shortfin eel blood up to pH 8.0, at 17°C and has an effect on arterial oxygen content. It cannot be responsible for all of the increased oxygen content during swimming and in recovery from swimming and hypoxia; ventilatory and/or circulatory changes must account for the rest. Hypoxia, but not swimming, produced a rise in dorsal aortic blood pressure. The bradycardia of hypoxia was deeper than that which accompanies apnoeic periods in air‐saturated water.