Factors regulating year‐class strength of Silver Carp throughout the Mississippi River basin

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
By: , and 

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Abstract

Recruitment of many fish populations is inherently highly variable inter‐annually. However, this variability can be synchronous at broad geographic scales due to fish dispersal and climatic conditions. Herein, we investigated recruitment synchrony of Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix across the Mississippi River basin. Year‐class strength (YCS) and synchrony of nine populations (max linear distance = 806.4 km) was indexed using catch‐curve residuals correlated between sites and related to local and regional climatic conditions. Overall, Silver Carp YCS was not synchronous among populations, suggesting local environmental factors are more important determinants of YCS than large‐scale environmental factors. Variation in Silver Carp YCS was influenced by river base flow and discharge variability at each site, indicating that extended periods of static local discharge benefit YCS. Further, river discharge and air temperature were correlated and synchronized among sites, but only similarities in river discharge was correlated with Silver Carp population synchrony, indicating that similarities in discharge (i.e., major flood) among sites can positively synchronize Silver Carp YCS. The positive correlation between Silver Carp YCS and river discharge synchrony suggests that regional flood regimes are an important force determining the degree of population synchrony among Mississippi River Silver Carp populations.

Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Factors regulating year‐class strength of Silver Carp throughout the Mississippi River basin
Series title Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
DOI 10.1002/tafs.10054
Volume 147
Issue 3
Year Published 2018
Language English
Publisher Wiley
Contributing office(s) Coop Res Unit Leetown
Description 13 p.
First page 541
Last page 553
Country United States
Other Geospatial Mississippi River basin
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