Induced Maturation and Spawning of the Chinese Catfish Clarias fuscus

Chinese catfish ( Clarias fuscus ) were successfully spawned in Hawaii using human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) at dosage rates of two and four international units (IU) per gram body weight. Fish not injected with HCG did not produce viable eggs. Successful spawns with HCG occurred between May and October. Hatch rates of up to 80% were obtained during June, July, and August for those fish given either a 2 or 4 IU per gram body weight injection of HCG. Fish spawned in either May or October yielded significantly higher hatch rates when injected with 4 rather than 2 IU per gram body weight. Fish held at elevated temperatures (28 to 30 C) prior to the normal spawning season developed significantly larger oocyte diameters, 60 days earlier than fish held under ambient temperature conditions (21.5 to 24 C). Photoperiod manipulation at ambient temperature conditions was associated with earlier oocyte maturation, but photoperiod effects were much less important than temperature.     

Sex‐dependent responses of perch to changes in water clarity and temperature

Rising temperatures and decreasing water transparency of lakes have strong wide ranging effects on fish. Fish responses to various changes in the environment are usually species‐dependent, but responses may also vary within species. In general, large individuals are considered to be more sensitive to environmental variation due to higher energy demand, than smaller individuals. Similarly, large individuals require more food to maintain bodily functions and are thus more sensitive to resource and food scarcity. These size‐specific responses to environmental gradients are also sex‐dependent in species that exhibit sexual size dimorphism (SSD). We studied in enclosures with short‐term experiments how rising temperatures and decreasing water transparency regulate the feeding rates of female and male European perch (Perca fluviatilis L.). To explore experimental results, we calculated perch SSD in nine lakes with varying environmental conditions using previously collected field data. The results of the experiments revealed that the combined effect of water transparency and temperature on the feeding rate of fish is gender‐dependent: feeding rate of females decreased more than that of males. The experimental results were also supported by field data that revealed a negative relation between water transparency and the magnitude of SSD in perch. Our results suggest that rising temperatures and decreasing water transparency may potentially decrease fish size in a sex‐dependent manner. As female size is one of the main demographic traits determining the reproductive success of a fish population, changing environments may have unexpected and far‐reaching consequences on fish population dynamics.     

Migration strategies of brown trout (Salmo trutta) in a subarctic river system as revealed by stable isotope analysis

We estimated the proportions of anadromous and freshwater‐resident brown trout (Salmo trutta) in different parts of the subarctic River Näätämöjoki/Neidenelva system (Finland and Norway) using carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen stable isotope analyses of archived scales as identifiers of migration strategy. Our results showed that carbon stable isotope values were the best predictor of migration strategy. Most individuals fell into two clearly distinct groups representing anadromous (47%) or freshwater‐resident (42%) individuals, but some fish had intermediate carbon values suggesting repeated movement between freshwater and the sea. The proportion of anadromous individuals decreased steadily with distance from the sea forming a spatial continuum in migration strategies which is probably maintained by the combination of several factors such as divergent availability of food resources, variable migration costs and genetic differences. These within‐catchment differences in migration strategies should be taken into account in fisheries management practices.     

Effect of forest structure and health on the relative surface temperature captured by airborne thermal imagery – Case study in Norway Spruce-dominated stands in Southern Finland

The effect of forest structure and health on the relative surface temperature captured by airborne thermal imagery was investigated in Norway Spruce-dominated stands in Southern Finland. Airborne thermal imagery, airborne scanning light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data and 92 field-measured sample plots were acquired at the area of interest. The surface temperature correlated most negatively with the logarithm of stem volume, Lorey’s height and the logarithm of basal area at a resolution of 254?m² (9?m radius). LiDAR-derived metrics: the standard deviations of the canopy heights, canopy height (upper percentiles and maximum height) and canopy cover percentage were most strongly negatively correlated with the surface temperature. Although forest structure has an effect on the detected surface temperature, higher temperatures were detected in severely defoliated canopies and the difference was statistically significant. We also found that the surface temperature differences between the segmented canopy and the entire plot were greater in the defoliated plots, indicating that thermal images may also provide some additional information for classifying forests health status. Based on our results, the effects of forest structure on the surface temperature captured by airborne thermal imagery should be taken into account when developing forest health mapping applications using thermal imagery.     

Hypoxia increases the release of salmon cardiac peptide (sCP) from the heart of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) under constant mechanical load in vitro

Our aim was to study the effects of hypoxia on the release of salmon cardiac peptide (sCP) from an isolated heart ventricle of trout during a constant mechanical load. Trout heart ventricles were studied in vitro. The ventricle was placed in an organ bath at 12 °C in which a constant mechanical load could be imposed on the ventricle while buffer solution was circulating. Ventricles were field-stimulated with a supramaximal voltage pulse at a rate of about 0.3 s^?1. Samples of 1 ml were collected at an interval of 10 min for 200 min from the organ bath and assessed with a radioimmunoassay for sCP. After a control period of 20 min, ventricles were exposed to hypoxia produced with N₂ gassing (n = 9) or to hypoxia with 20 mM BDM, a nonselective myosin ATPase inhibitor locking cross-bridges in a pre-power-stroke state inhibiting force production with normal electrical activity (n = 10). In this model and setup, hypoxia stimulated the release of sCP, but the interindividual variation in the response was large. At the end of hypoxia exposure, the concentration of sCP in the organ bath was about sixfold higher than at the start of the exposure (P < 0.05, one-way ANOVA for repeated measurements, followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparison test). When BDM was introduced into the bath, the ventricle still secreted sCP but the hypoxic response was smaller than in the experiments without BDM. In the trout heart ventricle, there is a hypoxia-sensitive component in the release mechanism of sCP which is independent of contraction.     

A robust set of black walnut microsatellites for parentage and clonal identification

We describe the development of a robust and powerful suite of 12 microsatellite marker loci for use in genetic investigations of black walnut and related species. These 12 loci were chosen from a set of 17 candidate loci used to genotype 222 trees sampled from a 38-year-old black walnut progeny test. The 222 genotypes represent a sampling from the broad geographic distribution of the species. Analysis of the samples using the 12 loci revealed an average expected heterozygosity of 0.83, a combined probability of identity of 3×10⁻¹⁹, and a combined probability of exclusion for paternity analysis of >0.999. The 222 genotyped trees from the progeny test comprised 39 open-pollinated families, 29 of which (having at least five sampled progeny) were used to estimate the outcrossing rate for the progeny trial. The same 29 families were used to construct a Neighbor-Joining dendrogram based upon allele sharing between individuals. The multilocus estimate of the outcrossing rate was 100% (standard error of zero), higher than the 90% level found in previous studies at the embryo stage, suggesting that both artificial and natural selection against selfs may have occurred over the 38-year lifespan of the progeny trial. In the Neighbor-Joining dendrogram, the majority of the putative siblings grouped together in 21 out of the 29 families, showing that the microsatellites were able to discern most of the family structure in the dataset. Our results indicate that errors were sometimes committed during the establishment of the progeny test. This set of microsatellite loci clearly provides a powerful tool for future applications in black walnut.