Premium
Bottom Organisms in Fertilized and Unfertilized Fish Ponds in Alabama
Author(s) -
Howell Henry H.
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1941)71[165:boifau]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - acre , zoology , plankton , biology , fertilizer , fish <actinopterygii> , environmental science , fishery , ecology , agronomy
A study was made of two experimental fish ponds located at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn, Alabama. Bottom samples were taken from June to November, 1940, in a 1.5‐acre fertilized pond and in a 1.8 acre unfertilized pond. Two methods of sampling were used, the Petersen dredge method and the stove‐pipe method. The latter method consistently gave a better quantitative sample than the former. The fertilized pond produced 382.9 pounds of fish per acre; the unfertilized pond produced 147.1 pounds per acre. The area of the fertilized pond was reduced two‐thirds of its original size during the fall drought, causing a tremendous concentration of bottom organisms. The weight of bottom organisms in the fertilized pond during a 5‐month period was 68.27 milligrams of dry organic matter per square foot, and for the unfertilized pond the average was 19.62 milligrams. The plankton samples for the same period contained an average weight of 5.81 milligrams per liter in the fertilized pond, and an average of 2.54 milligrams per liter in the unfertilized pond. Routine stomach analyses of bluegills from both ponds showed that the fish in the fertilized pond had plenty of insects throughout the period, and that in the unfertilized pond they had sufficient insects in June only. The fertilizer more than doubled the weight of fish, plankton and bottom organisms in the fertilized pond as compared with those in the unfertilized pond.