Robert C. Ball

A Proposal: Exchange Equilibria Control the Degree Chlorinated Hydrocarbons are Biologically Magnified in Lentic Environments

Abstract The dynamics of DDT in lentic environments were studied in a farm pond and four artificial pools. A hypothesis that biological magnification of pesticides was dependent on passage of the residues through a food chain was rejected and a hypothesis that accumulation depends on adsorption and solubility differences was proposed. The mechanism proposed is based on the principle that compounds are exchanged between water and fats. Exchange in fish passes through two stages, from water to blood and from blood to fats, permitting a high degree of magnification in fish. The proposed mechanism accounts for the reported observations that pesticides are excreted by fish, that body load of pesticides increases as the fat content of fish increases, that pesticide magnification by fish is inverse to the water solubility of the compounds and that pesticides persist longer in oligotrophic than eutrophic lentic ecosystems.

Influence of Capture Methods on Blood Characteristics and Mortality in the Rainbow Trout (Salmo gairdneri)

Abstract Blood characteristics and mortality were compared between rainbow trout which were captured by (1) angling with artificial lures, (2) electroshocking, and (3) seining. The hemoglobin concentration, erythrocyte sizes, plasma protein concentrations, and plasma protein fractions varied according to the method of capture. Mortality was negligible in the shocked and seined lots, but was above 85% in the hooked fish group. Mortality was delayed and the symptoms suggest progressive shock. Definite differences in behavior were noticed in the postcapture fish and included prolonged fasting (shocked and hooked fish), hyperexcitability (shocked fish), and lethargy (hooked fish). The authors believe that presently used methods of capturing and handling fish should be re-evaluated, particularly if the fish are to be used in toxicological or management studies.

Effects of the Removal of the Fish Population on the Fish-Food Organisms of a Lake

Almost all of the macroscopic aquatic organisms can serve as food for fishes under certain conditions and the many quantitative and qualitative studies of the standing crops of fish-food animals have been of value in estimating the capacity of a body of water to produce fish. While investigations of the production of fish-food animals are numerous, the majority of these studies are based upon summer season collections only. A very few of the workers have made estimates of production of invertebrates (Lundbeck 1926; Miller 1941). Ricker (1946) presented an analysis and review of the literature with a discussion of certain problems of the dynamics of production and also delineated the fundamental concepts of productivity which have an ecological application. Clarke (1946) has outlined concepts of productivity in a marine area. Certain of the interrelationships of a fish population and the invertebrate fauna in one of Michigans lakes have been considered by Ball (1948). The present report is concerned with a study, in this same lake, first, of the composition of the invertebrate fish-food population for a period of three years and, second, of the responses of these organisms to the removal of the fish population.

A qualitative and quantitative measure of Aufwuchs Production

Aufwuchs production was measured from its accrual on plexiglass substrates submerged in a stream. A method was developed for separating autotrophic and heterotrophic aufwuchs production and for separating this production from organic and inorganic sediments. The average aufwuchs production in the entire river during the summer of 1961 was 281.8 mg organic weight M-2 day-1, with the autotrophic organisms contributing 212.8 mg and the heterotrophic 69.0 mg. The rate of accumulation of organic material on artificial substrates has been used to estimate production within streams and to estimate the well-being of natural waters. In the past these measurements have included all of the organic matter which accumulated on the substrates and little thought was given to the origin of this material. The method given here allows the separation of this material into the components that are formed on the substrates and those transported from elsewhere and deposited. The technique of collecting aufwuchs communities from natural waters by means of artificial substrates has been employed for many years in a wide variety 1 This research is part of a thesis for the degree of Ph.D. presented to the Graduate Faculty of Michigan State University by the senior author and was supported by a grant (WP-00011-06) from the National Institute of Health. 2 Present address: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. TRANS. AMER. MrcRosc. Soc. 85(2): 232-240. 1966. :MEASURE OF AUFWUCHS PRODUCTION 233 of ecosystems. Hentschel ( 1916) generally is credited with being the first to use this method; but Butcher (1932), Ivlev (1933) , Newcombe (1949, 1950), Patrick, et al. ( 1954), Castenholz ( 1960), Grzenda and Brehmer ( 1960), Kevern ( 1962) , Sladeckova ( 1962), Wetzel ( 1963), and many others have used artificial substrates to study aufwuchs growth, production, and succession. Cooke ( 1956) reviewed the history and general methods of collecting aufwuchs on artificial substrates. Direct microscopic examination of the exposed substrates has been used by many workers, but Newcombe ( 1949) was the first to deal with the production of total organic matter, in contrast to the earlier work that was concerned chiefly with species composition. Grzenda and Brehmer ( 1960) developed a method of estimating aufwuchs production on artificial substrates from phytopigment extracts, and our method employs an expansion and modification of their procedure. A study was conducted during the summer of 1961 on a 30-mile section of the Red Cedar River, a warm-water stream located in the south central portion of the lower peninsula of Michigan. This study was originated to determine the energy exchange in a warm-water stream, with special attention to changes in primary and secondary production with variation in stream ecology. The material presented here represents a portion of that study. This section of the river drains 355 square miles of rolling farm and suburban land and for purposes of this investigation was divided into five different ecological zones. The Red Cedar is representative of many midwestern streams in that it receives industrial and domestic wastes and inorganic sediments from agricultural areas.

An Experiment in the Artificial Circulation of a Small Michigan Lake

Abstract The water of the hypolimnion of West Lost Lake, a small Michigan trout lake, was pumped to the surface with a centrifugal pump and discharged into the epilimnion during a 10-day period in midsummer. The volume of water displaced was 20.7 percent of the lake volume. As pumping progressed the thermocline lowered steadily and the thickness of the hypolimnion decreased. At the conclusion of pumping, the volume of the epilimnion had increased by 49.9 percent and the water of the hypolimnion had been displaced to the surface. The mean water temperature of the lake remained essentially constant during the experiment. In a 3-week period following pumping, thermal conditions of the lake did not change appreciably. During pumping, conductivity and alkalinity increased in the epilimnion and in the bottom water, and the dissolved oxygen of the bottom water increased rapidly. The addition of bottom water increased the total phosphorus of the epilimnion by 2.8 micrograms per liter during the first 48 hours of ...

Influence of a Diurnal Oxygen Pulse on Fish Serum Proteins

Abstract Changes in the serum protein, as shown by electrophoretic analyses, appear to be correlated with changes in the environment of the organism. These changes may be associated with aquatic pollution. A diurnal oxygen pulse of 3 ppm for 8 hours per day for 9 days produced a significant stress pattern in the serum protein fractions of bluegills and largemouth bass, but did not change that of yellow bullheads. According to this study, the minimum oxygen level (for 8 hours) that will not adversely affect bluegills and largemouth bass is well above the generally proposed 3 ppm.

A Fish Population Study of Third Sister Lake

Abstract The fish population of Third Sister Lake was removed by angling, netting and poison (rotenone). Fish were recovered after poisoning by intensive hand picking. An unknown number of fish, particularly those of the smaller sizes, did not come to the surface when killed by the poison and were therefore not recovered or included in the population analysis. A total of 15,454 fish weighing 866.6 pounds was recovered from all operations or 86.6 pounds per acre. Bluegills of legal length accounted for about 50 pounds per acre. Legal game fish made up approximately 70 per cent of the total weight of all fish. In 80 man-hours of hook and line fishing during the 22 days prior to poisoning, 431 fish weighing 153 pounds were captured. Approximately one fourth of the total number of legal largemouth bass and bluegills in the lake were removed by this angling effort which equaled 4.6 fish per hour. Coarse fish made up 16.3 per cent and forage fish 3.4 per cent of the weight of all fish.

A Summary of Experiments in Michigan Lakes on the Elimination of Fish Populations with Rotenone, 1934–1942

Abstract During the period 1934–1942, 32 lakes in Michigan were treated with rotenone to remove or reduce unwanted fish populations, and an attempt to recover the entire fish population was made on 18 of them. The majority of these lakes were not supporting a desirable or normally growing fish population at the time they were treated. They were mostly small, all less than 22 acres, and included lakes whose waters ranged from very soft to very hard, from acid to alkaline, and from shallow to very deep. In productivity, as measured by the standing crop of fish recovered, these lakes ranged from 10.0 to 194.5 pounds per acre. The lakes averaged 58.5 pounds of fish per acre of which 18.2 pounds were legal-sized game fish. The hard-water lakes were, in general, more productive than the soft-water lakes and the warm-water lakes more productive than the trout lakes.

An Experiment in the use of Derris Root (Rote-None) on the Fish and Fish-Food Organisms of Third Sister Lake

Abstract Sufficient powdered derris root (guaranteed rotenone content of 5 per cent) to make a concentration of 1:500,000 parts of water was applied to Third Sister Lake on May 6, 1941. Temperatures were unfavorably low and the treatment was not successful in the complete removal of fish. A second application on August 18, 1941 of a slightly greater concentration was sufficient to eradicate the remaining fish. There seemed to be little or no difference in the toleration of the different species of fish, however minnows and the young of game fish were killed in larger numbers at the beginning. It is believed this was the result of their location in shallow water rather than a difference in susceptibility to the poison. Not all fish came to the surface after death. Live fish taken from the lake before poisoning were placed in traps at different points and at various levels in the lake at the time of each poisoning in order to test vertical and horizontal distribution of the poison. In the first poisoning al...

Action of ddt on evoked and spontaneous activity from the rainbow trout lateral line nerve

Abstract 1. 1. Spontaneous and evoked neural activity was recorded from multifiber lateral line nerve preparations of rainbow trout, Salmo gairdneri. 2. 2. DDT was administered to fish in water and by intravenous injection. 3. 3. DDT-treated fish demonstrated classical poisoning symptoms in the absence of abnormal lateral line nerve discharge. 4. 4. Results indicate that the frequency of spontaneous activity from the lateral line nerve does not provide a sensitive index for analyzing the neurotoxic action of DDT, and afferent activity from this nerve appears to play a minor role in acute poisoning symptoms.