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Swimming Performance of Five Warmwater Stream Fish Species
Author(s) -
Scott Mandy K.,
Magoulick Daniel D.
Publication year - 2008
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/t06-278.1
Subject(s) - flume , lepomis , streams , substrate (aquarium) , etheostoma , biology , ecology , fish <actinopterygii> , fishery , mathematics , geometry , flow (mathematics) , computer network , computer science
Swimming ability of fish species may help explain their persistence or absence in flood‐disturbed streams. We used two artificial stream channels with low‐complexity (smooth Plexiglas) and high‐complexity (rocks glued onto Plexiglas) substrates to determine critical swim speeds ( U crit , cm/s) and examine flood resistance behavior of central stonerollers Campostoma anomalum , cardinal shiners Luxilus cardinalis , orangethroat darters Etheostoma spectabile , green sunfish Lepomis cyanellus , and longear sunfish L. megalotis . In the low‐complexity treatment, central stonerollers and cardinal shiners had significantly higher U crit than the other species, and orangethroat darters had significantly higher U crit than the sunfish species did. In the high‐complexity treatment, the U crit of central stonerollers was significantly higher than that of green sunfish, whereas those for all other species did not differ significantly. Flood resistance behavior was measured using relative velocity (i.e., a fish's chosen velocity relative to the average flume velocity). Cardinal shiners and longear sunfish chose velocities that were significantly lower than the average flume velocity in the smooth flume at U crit . Orangethroat darters and green sunfish chose lower‐than‐average velocities in the complex‐substrate flume at one‐half of U crit . No other species exhibited significant patch selection within the flume. Our results suggest that the swimming ability of central stonerollers may give them an advantage over other species during high flows in low‐complexity substrates, whereas sunfishes and orangethroat darters are better able to use high‐complexity substrates as velocity refugia during high flows.