Spatial ecology of the white‐clawed crayfish in an upland stream and implications for the conservation of this endangered species

• 1. Populations of white‐clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) have undergone substantial declines across Europe. Remaining populations tend to be fragmented and in many catchments they are restricted to upland streams. Information is needed concerning their spatial ecology to assist with conservation and rehabilitation of existing fragmented populations, as well as possible reintroductions.
• 2. A novel method for the long‐term tagging of white‐clawed crayfish was used to study the spatial ecology of a white‐clawed crayfish population fragment in a small, moderate‐gradient upland stream. Internal passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags enabled adult crayfish (carapace length >27 mm) to be permanently tagged, each with a unique identification code and resulted in a high number of recaptures. Of 501 crayfish tagged 413 were subsequently relocated at least once.
• 3. Crayfish did not make extensive movements, the median annual distance moved was 84.8 m yr^?1, equivalent to annual net movement of 0.233 m day^?1, substantially less than reported in previous studies. The lower levels of movement may reflect the study encompassing all seasons, including winter, when crayfish are relatively inactive.
• 4. Significantly more crayfish moved downstream compared with upstream and distances moved downstream were significantly greater than those in an upstream direction. This may be linked to the relatively high gradient of the stream and a reduced passability of the abundant riffles to upstream movements of crayfish.
• 5. A small weir acted as a barrier within the stream, preventing upstream movements of crayfish. Even small barriers may limit the movements of white‐clawed crayfish and have the potential to limit connectivity within populations and prevent expansion or recolonization.
• 6. The results presented suggest that fragmented populations of white‐clawed crayfish in upland streams are unlikely to expand rapidly and reconnect to other population fragments, even where habitat is suitable. In establishing stream populations care should be taken to ensure that even small barriers to movement are removed unless these are intended to exclude non‐native biota, especially crayfish.

Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Status of galaxiid fishes in Tasmania,Australia: conservation listings,threats and management issues

• 1. Fish of the family Galaxiidae are restricted to the southern hemisphere where they occupy a diverse array of habitats ranging from over 2000 m in elevation to sea level. Some species are diadromous and, hence, freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats are used during their life‐cycle; other species complete their entire life‐cycles in freshwater environments.
• 2. Tasmania has a diverse galaxiid fauna that accounts for 64% of native freshwater fish species found on the island. The Tasmanian galaxiid fauna is characterized by high species richness (5 genera and 16 species), endemism (11 species), restricted distributions, and non‐diadromous life histories (11 species).
• 3. The galaxiid fauna of Tasmania has significant conservation status with 69% of species considered ‘threatened’. The conservation status of the fauna is recognized at State, national and international levels.
• 4. The key threats to galaxiids in Tasmania are exotic species, hydrological manipulations, restricted distributions, general habitat degradation and exploitation of stocks.
• 5. Although work has recently been undertaken to conserve and manage Tasmanian galaxiid populations, the fauna is still thought to be imperilled. Knowledge gaps that need to be addressed include the biology and ecology of most species (e.g. reproductive biology, life histories, habitat use and requirements) and impacts of habitat manipulations, as well as mechanisms and impacts of interactions with exotic species. Techniques to monitor accurately the status of galaxiid species and their populations need to be developed and the coexistence of some galaxiids with introduced salmonids should also be examined.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fish community responses to stream flow alterations and habitat modifications by small hydropower projects in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot,India

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A method to assess longitudinal riverine connectivity in tropical streams dominated by migratory biota

• 1. One way in which dams affect ecosystem function is by altering the distribution and abundance of aquatic species.
• 2. Previous studies indicate that migratory shrimps have significant effects on ecosystem processes in Puerto Rican streams, but are vulnerable to impediments to upstream or downstream passage, such as dams and associated water intakes where stream water is withdrawn for human water supplies. Ecological effects of dams and water withdrawals from streams depend on spatial context and temporal variability of flow in relation to the amount of water withdrawn.
• 3. This paper presents a conceptual model for estimating the probability that an individual shrimp is able to migrate from a stream's headwaters to the estuary as a larva, and then return to the headwaters as a juvenile, given a set of dams and water withdrawals in the stream network. The model is applied to flow and withdrawal data for a set of dams and water withdrawals in the Caribbean National Forest (CNF) in Puerto Rico.
• 4. The index of longitudinal riverine connectivity (ILRC), is used to classify 17 water intakes in streams draining the CNF as having low, moderate, or high connectivity in terms of shrimp migration in both directions. An in‐depth comparison of two streams showed that the stream characterized by higher water withdrawal had low connectivity, even during wet periods. Severity of effects is illustrated by a drought year, where the most downstream intake caused 100% larval shrimp mortality 78% of the year.
• 5. The ranking system provided by the index can be used as a tool for conservation ecologists and water resource managers to evaluate the relative vulnerability of migratory biota in streams, across different scales (reach‐network), to seasonally low flows and extended drought. This information can be used to help evaluate the environmental tradeoffs of future water withdrawals.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How deforestation drives stream habitat changes and the functional structure of fish assemblages in different tropical regions

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Fish diversity assessment in the headwaters of the Volga River using environmental DNA metabarcoding

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Fish–habitat relationships and fish conservation in small coastal streams in southern Spain

• 1. Studies dealing with the fish fauna of coastal streams are scarce in the scientific literature, particularly those from Mediterranean climates. Owing to their small size, these systems suffer extreme seasonal fluctuations, following the typical Mediterranean flood–drought cycle and leading to a high risk of extinction to freshwater fish.
• 2. This work analyses fish distribution in 14 stream stretches belonging to eight basins in the northern sector of the Strait of Gibraltar (southern Spain). Fish–habitat relationships were studied through multivariate ordination techniques at two scales: basin and stretch.
• 3. A principal components analysis clearly discriminated larger and more sinuous basins from smaller and steeper ones. This ordination was related to the non‐migratory freshwater fish species richness and to the total number of fish species present in the middle reaches of each basin.
• 4. The main sources of variation in community composition and habitat characteristics in the different stretches were related to a clear upstream–downstream gradient, along which total species richness increased.
• 5. These small coastal basins are inhabited by two highly endangered species, Andalusian toothcarp (Aphanius baeticus) and Iberian chub (Squalius pyrenaicus), and have similar or higher overall freshwater species richness than larger adjacent basins. The near absences of flow regulation and introduced species make these streams one of the few types of Iberian aquatic system where unaltered fish–habitat relationships can be studied.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Re-establishment of Danish streams: Restoration and maintenance measures

• 1. Prior to 1983 the Danish legislation concerning streams gave priority to drainage of water. The revision of The Watercourse Act gave balanced priority to drainage of water and environmental quality, focusing on an ecologically more appropriate maintenance practice and giving special provisions for stream restoration activities.
• 2. Different measures of single structure restoration have been used, the most common being replacement of weirs, dams or other obstacles by rapids, establishment of salmonid spawning grounds, and installation of new or improved fish ladders.
• 3. The most common stream channel restoration method is integrated use of a number of single structure measures. Establishment of a two-stage channel and re-opening of small piped streams have also been used. Stream valley restoration includes restoration of old meanders or establishment of a new sinuous channel and involves the adjacent riparian areas.
• 4. The changed stream maintenance practice involves a new strategy for dredging and cutting of weeds and bank vegetation in order to minimize the ecological damage caused by keeping a reasonable discharge capacity. In 1990, environmentally acceptable weed-cutting was performed in 37% of all municipal streams and the bank vegetation was left uncut in a third of the streams. Similarly, more than half of the county streams were maintained using hand scythes and in 74% of the streams the bank vegetation was left uncut.
• 5. Quantitatively, stream restoration has contributed little to the general improvement of Danish streams compared with changed maintenance practice. Stream restoration projects create public interest in the environmental quality of streams, but major improvements in the physical properties of Danish streams depend on future maintenance practice.
• 6. Due to major changes predicted in Danish agriculture many riparian areas and wetlands will reappear and the natural or semi-natural physical properties of streams will be re-established by natural processes or changed in maintenance practice. However, there will still be large areas with intensive agriculture, where environmental and agricultural interests must be balanced. The Danish experience has shown that this is possible.

     

Issues for the conservation and management of Falkland Islands freshwater fishes

• 1. The Falkland Islands, in the cool‐temperate south‐western Atlantic Ocean, have an impoverished freshwater fish fauna, with only two indigenous species certainly present there: the Falklands minnow, Galaxias maculatus, and the zebra trout, Aplochiton zebra. Additional species whose presence there is uncertain are the southern pouched lamprey, Geotria australis, and the Patagonian puyen, Galaxias platei. Brown trout, Salmo trutta, were introduced in the mid‐20th century, and sea‐migratory (diadromous) populations are widespread.
• 2. Distributions of zebra trout and brown trout, particularly, are complementary, suggesting that brown trout are having detrimental impacts on zebra trout. Zebra trout have suffered massive decline over the past few decades and remain largely in restricted areas that brown trout have not yet invaded.
• 3. Owing to their sea‐migratory habits, it can be expected that brown trout will eventually invade all significant streams on the Falkland Islands. This raises issues of serious concern since zebra trout are also probably sea‐migratory, and therefore need access to and from the sea to complete their life cycles. Therefore, any streams accessible to zebra trout are potentially accessible also to brown trout, raising the spectre that eventually brown trout will invade all the streams where zebra trout persist.
• 4. The existence of landlocked populations of zebra trout provides some form of protection from brown trout invasion, though a landlocked stock does not represent the full behavioural and genetic diversity of zebra trout in Falkland's waters, and must be regarded as a last resort means for conservation.

Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rapid response of fish and aquatic habitat to removal of a tidal barrier

1. River barrier removal is used increasingly as a conservation tool to restore lotic habitat and river connectivity, but evidence of its efficacy is incomplete. This study used a before–after methodology to determine the effects of removing a tidal-limit barrier on the fishes, macroinvertebrates, and habitats of an English coastal stream.
2. Following barrier removal, habitat diversity increased immediately upstream and remained similar downstream. Mobilized silt altered the substrate composition immediately downstream, but this was temporary as silt was flushed out the following winter. Changes to macroinvertebrate communities occurred upstream and downstream of the former barrier but these were transient.
3. A dramatic and sustained increase in fish density occurred immediately upstream of the barrier after its removal, but effects downstream were minor. The fish community upstream changed, largely due to rapid recruitment and dispersal of endangered European eel (Anguilla anguilla). Eel density in the formerly impounded zone increased from 0.5 per 100 m² before barrier removal to 32.5 per 100 m² 5 months after removal. By 17 months after barrier removal there was no difference in eel density across the six sections sampled.
4. Although resident stream fishes such as bullhead (Cottus gobio species complex, protected under the European Habitats Directive) were abundant in middle and upper-stream sections, brown trout (Salmo trutta, a listed species for biodiversity conservation in England and Wales) density remained low during the study and recruitment was poor. This suggests that although colonization access for anadromous trout was available, habitat upstream may have been unsuitable for reproduction, indicating that wider catchment management is required to complement the restoration of connectivity.
5. These findings suggest that tidal barrier removal is an effective method of restoring lotic habitats and connectivity, and can be beneficial for resident and migratory fishes including those of conservation importance (e.g. European eel) in coastal streams.

     

Distribution modelling to guide stream fish conservation: an example using the mountain sucker in the Black Hills National Forest,USA

• 1. Conservation biologists need tools that can utilize existing data to identify areas with the appropriate habitat for species of conservation concern. Regression models that predict suitable habitat from geospatial data are such a tool. Multiple logistic regression models developed from existing geospatial data were used to identify large‐scale stream characteristics associated with the occurrence of mountain suckers (Catostomus platyrhynchus), a species of conservation concern, in the Black Hills National Forest, South Dakota and Wyoming, USA.
• 2. Stream permanence, stream slope, stream order, and elevation interacted in complex ways to influence the occurrence of mountain suckers. Mountain suckers were more likely to be present in perennial streams, and in larger, higher gradient streams at higher elevations but in smaller, lower gradient streams at lower elevations.
• 3. Applying the logistic regression model to all streams provided a way to identify streams in the Black Hills National Forest most likely to have mountain suckers present. These types of models and predictions can be used to prioritize areas that should be surveyed to locate additional populations, identify stream segments within catchments for population monitoring, aid managers in assessing whether proposed forest management will potentially have impacts on fish populations, and identify streams most suitable for stream rehabilitation and conservation or translocation efforts.
• 4. When the effect of large brown trout (Salmo trutta) was added to the best model of abiotic factors, it had a negative effect on the occurrence of mountain suckers. Negative effects of brown trout on the mountain sucker suggest that management of recreational trout fisheries needs to be balanced with mountain sucker conservation in the Black Hills. However, more spatially explicit information on brown trout abundance would allow managers to understand where the two species interact and where recreational fisheries need to be balanced with fish conservation.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The importance of riparian subtropical lucidophyllous forest to odonate conservation

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Dead or alive — Old empty shells do not prompt false-positive results in environmental DNA surveys targeting the freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera L.)

1. Environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples is increasingly used to detect the presence and distribution of species in aquatic ecosystems. However, before implementing eDNA in monitoring programmes, various species-specific sampling or analytical issues remain to be resolved in order to minimize frequencies of false-positive and -negative results. For example, empty shells from freshwater pearl mussels (Margaritifera margaritifera) contain extractable DNA (chemical extraction from ground-up shells) suggesting a risk of false-positive samples at stream sites with extinct populations but with empty shell material remaining.
2. The aim of this study was to investigate whether empty and naturally degrading shells from M. margaritifera can cause false-positive eDNA signals in water samples.
3. Water samples were collected from outdoor stream channels (in Lemming, Denmark) with living freshwater pearl mussels or empty shell material (density ~10 individuals m⁻²) during a 3-week experimental period. Living freshwater pearl mussels were collected from Hemgravs stream in Sweden and transported to Denmark according to permissions granted by the Swedish and Danish authorities.
4. All water samples from stream channels containing empty shells were negative for eDNA indicating that eDNA traces in stream water are most likely to originate from living individuals located upstream of the sampling site. Water samples collected from stream channels containing living individuals of M. margaritifera were consistently positive for eDNA except for one sample (interpreted as a false negative).
5. The study shows that positive eDNA signals for freshwater pearl mussels most likely reflect the presence of living individuals. Consequently, we suggest that eDNA should be used to locate remaining population fragments of M. margaritifera in deep and turbulent streams, providing a platform for faster and more efficient decision making when launching investigative and mitigation initiatives.

     

Early life‐history adaptation influences conservation approaches for facultatively amphidromous fish

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Underwater video analysis as a non‐destructive alternative to electrofishing for sampling imperilled headwater stream fishes

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Country‐wide analysis of large wood as a driver of fish abundance in Swedish streams: Which species benefit and where?

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Restricted movement of prairie fishes in fragmented riverscapes risks ecosystem structure being ratcheted downstream

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Do network relationships matter? Comparing network and instream habitat variables to explain densities of juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in mid‐coastal Oregon,USA

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Development of an accurate model to predict the phenology of Atlantic salmon smolt spring migration

1. Changes in migration timing, resulting from the alteration in river continuity or the effect of climate change, can have major consequences on the population dynamics of diadromous fish. Forecasting the phenology of fish migration is thus critically important to implement management actions aimed at protecting fish during their migration.
2. In this study, an 11‐year monitoring survey of Atlantic salmon smolts (Salmo salar) from the Ourthe River, Belgium, was analysed within a European Special Area of Conservation to improve the understanding of environment‐induced spring migration. A logistic model was fitted to forecast smolt migration and to calculate phenological indicators for management, i.e. the onset, end, and duration of migration, while accounting for the influence of photoperiod, water temperature, and hydrological conditions.
3. The results indicated that the photo‐thermal units accumulated by smolts above a 7°C temperature threshold was a relevant proxy to reflect the synergistic effect between temperature and photoperiod on smolt migration. After integrating the effect of river flow pulses, the model accurately explained the inter‐annual changes in migration timing (R² = 0.95). The model predictions provide decisive management information to identify sensitive periods during which mitigation measures (e.g. hydropower turbine shutdown, river discharge management) should be conducted to promote smolt survival.
4. The model was used to predict phenological characteristics under future scenarios of climate change. The results suggest a joint effect of hydrological alterations and water warming. Temperature increases of 1–4°C were associated with earlier initiation of migration, 6–51 days earlier, and spring flood events greatly influenced the duration of the migration period. Accordingly, the combined effects of human‐induced modifications of the hydrological regimes and increasing temperatures could result in a mismatch between the smolt and favourable survival conditions in the marine environment.

     

Surface water balance to evaluate the hydrological impacts of small instream diversions and application to the Russian River basin,California, USA

• 1. Small streams are increasingly under pressure to meet water needs associated with expanding human development, but the hydrologic and ecological effects are not commonly described in scientific literature.
• 2. To evaluate the potential effects that surface water abstraction can have on flow regime, scientists and resource managers require tools that compare abstraction to stream flow at ecologically relevant time scales.
• 3. The classic water balance model was adapted to evaluate how small instream diversions can affect catchment stream‐flow; the adapted model maintains the basic mass balance concept, but limits the parameters and considers surface water data at an appropriate timescale.
• 4. This surface water balance was applied to 20 Russian River tributaries in north‐central California to evaluate how recognized diversions can affect stream flow throughout the region.
• 5. The model indicates that existing diversions have little capacity to influence peak or base flows during the rainy winter season, but may reduce stream flow during spring by 20% in one‐third of all the study streams; and have the potential to accelerate summer intermittence in 80% of the streams included in this study.
• 6. The surface water balance model may be especially useful for guiding river restoration from a hydrologic perspective: it can distinguish among streams with high diversion regimes that may require more than just physical channel restoration to provide ecological benefits, and can illustrate the extent to which changing the diversion parameters of particular water users can affect the persistence of a natural flow regime.
• 7. As applied to Russian River tributaries, the surface water balances suggest that reducing demand for stream flow in summer may be as important as physical channel restoration to restoring anadromous salmonids in this region.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.