Premium
Sea Lamprey as an Early Responder to Climate Change in the Great Lakes Basin
Author(s) -
Holmes John A.
Publication year - 1990
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(1990)119<0292:slaaer>2.3.co;2
Subject(s) - petromyzon , hatching , climate change , lamprey , environmental science , ecology , biology , egg incubation , population , fishery , demography , sociology
Forecasts based on initial assessments of climate change and its consequences for aquatic ecosystems are unlikely to be taken seriously unless some evidence becomes available that the forecasted effects are occurring. Many population rate processes should respond early to temperature and these responses may be used to detect some of the ecological effects of climate warming early in the process of change. In the Great Lakes basin, larval sea lampreys Petromyzon marinus and other stream fish may be such indicators. I tested the hypothesis that temperature exerts a significant influence on two rate processes of sea lamprey, egg hatching and larval growth rate, by regression analysis using the Arrhenius model. The length of egg incubation is significantly related to the proportion of eggs hatching and to temperature ( P < 0.01); temperature accounted for 88% of the total variability in hatching time. Both temperature and conductivity (as a surrogate measure of stream productivity) were significant ( P < 0.01) univariate predictors of growth rate in larval sea lamprey populations subjected to repeated lampricide treatments. However, temperature was the better predictor of growth ( r 2 = 0.56) and the conductivity variable did not contribute significantly ( P > 0.15) in a stepwise multiple regression. Forecasts can be based on these temperature relationships; the forecasts can be tested if and when climate change occurs.