Marco A. Rodríguez

RESTRICTED MOVEMENT IN STREAM FISH: THE PARADIGM IS INCOMPLETE, NOT LOST

The “restricted-movement paradigm” (RMP) states that adult fish in streams are sedentary and spend most of their lives in short (20–50 m) reaches of stream. In mark–recapture studies, however, many fish initially marked are often never recaptured. As well, turnover rates of individuals in the home section (where fish were originally marked) can be high when marked fish moving out are rapidly replaced by unmarked ones. Recent challenges to the RMP have been based on the inference that high turnover indicates high mobility. However, when the home section is small many individuals may leave (high turnover) but not move far away (low displacement). I present two models for the frequency distribution of displacement distances: one represents populations as homogeneous ensembles with a single mobility parameter; the second represents populations as a mixture of stationary and mobile individuals. Both readily distinguish the turnover and displacement components of movement and show that high turnover rate is compatible with low displacement. The models were then fit to dispersal curves for six species of stream salmonids in 27 populations. Empirical estimates of turnover rate were high (median: 0.53), variable among populations (range: 0.15–0.78), but unrelated to displacement distance. Median displacement was <100 m for 24 populations and was typically <50 m. The proportion of mobile individuals was low in most populations (median: 19%) and exceeded 50% in only five of the populations. Brook trout, a species central to studies critical of the RMP, appeared to be exceptionally mobile relative to other salmonids. The compatibility of high turnover rates with short displacement distances and the finding that median displacement was usually limited support the notion that restricted movement is the norm in populations of stream salmonids during nonmigratory periods. However, the finding of considerable intra- and interspecific heterogeneity in the extent of movement underscores the potential importance of the mobile component to population processes. By providing an analytical framework that yields quantitative measures of different components of movement and allows for standardized comparisons, these models can bring needed rigor to analysis and design in movement studies.

Foodweb analysis of the Orinoco floodplain based on production estimates and stable isotope data

Stable isotope data and indirect methods for estimating consumer production were used in a foodweb analysis for the Orinoco River floodplain, Venezuela. The ratio of annual production to mean annual biomass (Pa/B̄) was estimated from mass at maturity for all major categories of consumers. Field data on B̄ then were used to estimate Pa for each major category. Carbon sources for all categories of consumers were identified through δ13C analysis, and trophic shifts in δ15N were used in assigning trophic levels to consumers. The ultimate C source for both invertebrates and fish was algae (phytoplankton and periphyton), even though macrophytes and litterfall from the floodplain forest composed 98% of potentially available C. Production of invertebrate consumers (benthos, rhizofauna, and zooplankton), which occurred almost entirely through 1st-level consumption, was estimated as 14 g C m−2 y−1. Fish, which produced 11 g C m−2 y−1, showed a mean δ15N trophic shift of 1.8 units above the algal C source, suggesting that ∼20% of fish production was directly accountable to consumption of algal C (1st-level consumption), and that most of the remainder was attributable to 1st-level carnivory. Data on production and trophic shifts implied trophic efficiency of 5% for invertebrates and 20% for fish. Although the food web is focused on a very small fraction of potentially available primary C (algae), this C source can account quantitatively for the observed production of both invertebrates and fish. The food web showed marked trophic compression (large consumers supported by trophic levels 1 and 2), which is the only means by which high production of large consumers can be sustained on a small fraction of the potentially available C.

Fish community structure in relation to environmental variation in floodplain lakes of the Araguaia River, Amazon Basin

We examined the relationship between structure of fish communities and 11 environmental variables in floodplain lakes from the Middle Araguaia River, Brazil. Samples were collected at the beginning and at the end of the dry season in standardized surveys of six seasonally isolated lakes and six lakes permanently connected to the river mainstem. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed that among the environmental descriptors of lakes, only Secchi transparency and maximum depth were significantly related to fish community structure. Most of the patterned variation in community structure was associated with marked seasonal changes in lake transparency (means: early dry season=90.8 cm; late dry season = 33.2 cm) and depth (means: early dry season = 4.6 m; late dry season = 2.0 m). Visually oriented fishes had highest abundance in clear lakes, whereas fishes with adaptations to low visibility were most abundant in turbid lakes. The type of isolation of lakes from the river channel had no apparent effect on community structure. The results suggest that sensory adaptations for detection of prey under prevailing optical conditions play a major role in the organization of these communities, as predicted by a model of fish community organization originally developed for floodplain lakes of the Orinoco River, Venezuela.

Local Movement as a Measure of Habitat Quality in Stream Salmonids

Habitat assessments are often based on the premise that spatial variation in population density arises from, and accurately reflects, underlying differences in quality among habitats. Nonetheless, this premise has been criticized on both theoretical and empirical grounds. Habitat quality perhaps is best evaluated by examining behavioural processes which directly influence habitat use. We present an approach based on the assumption that measures of local movement, such as habitat-specific immigration and loss rates, provide useful indicators of habitat quality. A dynamic turnover model was used in conjunction with mark-recapture techniques to estimate movement parameters for brook charr, Salvelinus fontinalis, and Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar, in different stream habitats during the summer. Immigration and loss rates were derived from mark-recapture experiments covering short periods of time (6 days). Movement-based rankings of habitat quality for both charr (pools ≥ glides > riffles) and salmon (riffles > glides > pools) were in agreement with results from earlier studies. Over evaluation periods of up to 65 days, observed abundances were highly variable in time and fluctuated about the equilibrium abundances calculated from movement parameters in the short-term experiments, suggesting that movement-based parameters may be more stable than measures of abundance for evaluating salmonid habitat. Because the approach based on movement behaviour focuses on immigration and loss, two processes that directly generate density differentials between habitats, it provides a more reliable mechanistic basis for understanding habitat selection than do traditional approaches based on density–quality relationships.

Fish dispersal in fragmented landscapes: a modeling framework for quantifying the permeability of structural barriers

Dispersal is a key determinant of the spatial distribution and abundance of populations, but human-made fragmentation can create barriers that hinder dispersal and reduce population viability. This study presents a modeling framework based on dispersal kernels (modified Laplace distributions) that describe stream fish dispersal in the presence of obstacles to passage. We used mark-recapture trials to quantify summer dispersal of brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in four streams crossed by a highway. The analysis identified population heterogeneity in dispersal behavior, as revealed by the presence of a dominant sedentary component (48-72% of all individuals) characterized by short mean dispersal distance (<10 m), and a secondary mobile component characterized by longer mean dispersal distance (56-1086 m). We did not detect evidence of barrier effects on dispersal through highway crossings. Simulation of various plausible scenarios indicated that detectability of barrier effects was strongly dependent on features of sampling design, such as spatial configuration of the sampling area, barrier extent, and sample size. The proposed modeling framework extends conventional dispersal kernels by incorporating structural barriers. A major strength of the approach is that ecological process (dispersal model) and sampling design (observation model) are incorporated simultaneously into the analysis. This feature can facilitate the use of prior knowledge to improve sampling efficiency of mark-recapture trials in movement studies. Model-based estimation of barrier permeability and its associated uncertainty provides a rigorous approach for quantifying the effect of barriers on stream fish dispersal and assessing population dynamics of stream fish in fragmented landscapes.

Incorporating temporally dynamic baselines in isotopic mixing models

Stable isotopes (particularly C and N) are widely used to make inferences regarding food web structure and the phenology of consumer diet shifts, applications that require accurate isotopic characterization of trophic resources to avoid biased inferences of feeding relationships. For example, most isotope mixing models require that endmembers be adequately represented by a single probability distribution; yet, there is mounting evidence that the isotopic composition of aquatic organisms often used as mixing model endmembers can change over periods of weeks to months. A review of the literature indicated that the delta13C values of five aquatic primary consumer taxa, commonly used as proxies of carbon production sources (i.e., trophic baselines), express seasonally dynamic cycles characterized by an oscillation between summer maxima and winter minima. Based on these results, we built a dynamic baseline mixing model that allows a growing consumer to track temporal gradients in the isotopic baselines of a food web. Simulations showed that the ability of a consumer to maintain or approach isotopic equilibrium with its diet over a realistic growth season was strongly affected by both the rate of change of the isotopic baseline and equilibration rate of the consumer. In an empirical application, mixing models of varying complexity were used to estimate the relative contribution of benthic vs. pelagic carbon sources to nine species of juvenile fish in a fluvial lake of the St. Lawrence River system (Québec, Canada). Estimates of p (proportion of carbon derived from benthic sources) derived from a static mixing model indicated broad interspecific variation in trophic niche, ranging from complete benthivory to > 95% reliance on pelagic food webs. Output from the more realistic dynamic baseline mixing model increased estimated benthivory by an average of 36% among species. Taken together, our results demonstrate that failing to identify dynamic baselines when present, and (or) matching consumers with baseline taxa that possess substantially different equilibration rates can seriously bias interpretation of stable isotope data. Additionally, by providing a formalized framework that allows both resources and consumers to shift their isotopic value through time, our model demonstrates a feasible approach for incorporating temporally dynamic isotope conditions in trophic studies of higher consumers.

The freshwater habitats, fishes, and fisheries of the Orinoco River basin

The Orinoco River of Venezuela and Colombia is one of the great rivers of the world, ranking third by discharge after the Amazon and the Congo. In the Orinoco basin, riverine and floodplain habitats, including riparian forests, play key roles in the conservation of biodiversity and support commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries. The basins three major floodplains regulate the amplitude and duration of floods, maintain fertile agricultural terrain, provide habitat for numerous terrestrial and aquatic species, and support the fishery. The fish fauna, which includes some 1,000 species, encompasses a great deal of ecological diversity in terms of geographic distributions, habitat affinities, functional morphology, and reproductive and feeding strategies. The Orinoco fishery is still multispecific, with around 80 different species found in the fish markets at different times of year. Current estimates indicate that annual sustainable yield is 40,000 – 45,000 metric tons. Fish culture in the region is underdeveloped despite decades of research and promotion. There is no serious commercial trade for ornamental fishes. Large regions of the Orinoco basin are still in a relatively pristine state, but aquatic resources are increasingly threatened by habitat destruction, overharvesting, pollution, and hydrological perturbation. Scientific understanding of diversity hotspots, critical habitats, and conservation status of fishes in the basin is currently insufficient to satisfy management needs. Compliance to fishery regulations is low and fishing is drastically modifying the relative abundance, population structure, and distribution of fish stocks. However, many sectors of the Orinoco basin are unexploited or only lightly exploited, and fish stocks can recover quickly if given the opportunity. Stricter enforcement of current fishery regulations would reduce the likelihood of stock collapses and other, possibly irreversible, changes in the fishery.

Developments in the ecology, evolution, and behaviour of the charrs, genus Salvelinus: relevance for their management and conservation

Salvelinus species are one of the most thoroughly studied groups of fishes. Many reasons explain this intense interest in charr biology. First, charrs have a Holarctic distribution encompassing many Asian, North American, and European countries and occupy a diversity of aquatic environments, including both marine and freshwater habitats. For instance, the presence of anadromous, stream-resident, and lacustrine life histories within and among species provides a rich template for ecological and physiological study and experimentation. Second, most of the current distribution of charr includes areas that were directly influenced by climate and topographic change associated with the many Pleistocene glaciations. This means that there has been tremendous opportunity for repeated episodes of isolation, divergence in distinct refugia (and different selective environments), and recontact between divergent lineages. Undoubtably, these conditions have promoted much of the tremendous morphological, ecological, and genetic variability and plasticity within species of the genus and make charr very good models to study evolutionary processes ‘in action’. Third, many charr species exhibit demographic characteristics such as slow growth, late maturity, and life in extreme environments, that perhaps make them more susceptible to extinction from habitat changes and overexploitation, particularly because they often occupy depauperate aquatic habitats. This vulnerability makes understanding their biology of great relevance to biodiversity and conservation. Finally, charr are of great cultural, commercial, and recreational significance to many communities, and their intimate linkage with human societies has therefore undoubtedly stimulated much interest in this enigmatic genus.

Quantifying habitat-dependent mortality risk in lacustrine fishes by means of tethering trials and survival analyses

Habitat features influence the ecological interactions and spatial distribution of fish species. For example, water transparency and macrophyte cover, as well as their interaction, can strongly influence predation risk and mortality. Tethering trials were conducted in Lake St. Pierre (Quebec, Canada) to assess the effects of water transparency and macrophyte cover on the mortality risk of eight abundant fish species; Brown Bullhead (Ameiurus nebulosus), Mooneye (Hiodon tergisus), Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides), Golden Shiner (Notropis crysoleucas), Blacknose Shiner (Notropis heterolepis), Spottail Shiner (Notropis hudsonius), Trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus), and Yellow Perch (Perca flavescens). Kaplan–Meier survival curves showed that mortality risk varied substantially among three groups of species having high, intermediate, or low survival rates. Species with spines appeared to have higher survival rates, consistent with the notion that spines deter predators. Cox regression models showed that mortality risk for six of the eight species was influenced by water transparency or an interaction of transparency with macrophyte cover. Mortality risk was generally greatest at low transparency. Variation in water transparency may generate spatial heterogeneity in fish abundance, either through direct effects, such as local reduction in prey numbers by predation, or indirect effects, such as behavioural avoidance of risky areas by prey.

A nonlinear population Monte Carlo scheme for the Bayesian estimation of parameters of α -stable distributions

The class of α -stable distributions enjoys multiple practical applications in signal processing, finance, biology and other areas because it allows to describe interesting and complex data patterns, such as asymmetry or heavy tails, in contrast with the simpler and widely used Gaussian distribution. The density associated with a general α -stable distribution cannot be obtained in closed form, which hinders the process of estimating its parameters. A nonlinear population Monte Carlo (NPMC) scheme is applied in order to approximate the posterior probability distribution of the parameters of an α -stable random variable given a set of random realizations of the latter. The approximate posterior distribution is computed by way of an iterative algorithm and it consists of a collection of samples in the parameter space with associated nonlinearly-transformed importance weights. A numerical comparison of the main existing methods to estimate the α -stable parameters is provided, including the traditional frequentist techniques as well as a Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and a likelihood-free Bayesian approach. It is shown by means of computer simulations that the NPMC method outperforms the existing techniques in terms of parameter estimation error and failure rate for the whole range of values of α , including the smaller values for which most existing methods fail to work properly. Furthermore, it is shown that accurate parameter estimates can often be computed based on a low number of observations. Additionally, numerical results based on a set of real fish displacement data are provided.