Assessment of movements of resident stream brown trout, Salmo trutta L., among contiguous sections of stream

Abstract

– The present authors studied the movements of resident stream brown trout, Salmo trutta L., in Valley Creek, Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA, using mark‐recapture techniques as well as radio telemetry. The novel characteristic of this study is that the entire stream was sampled during recapture, thus minimizing the possibility of bias during this portion of the analysis. The authors tagged 627 trout between June and September, 1995, and made 94.6% of recaptures in December, 1995, and 98.5% of recaptures in March, 1996, within 800 m of the initial tagging sites. They also implanted six trout with radio transmitters and made 94.6% of contacts within 800 m of the initial implantation sites. The data, which were pooled from mark‐recapture and radio telemetry studies, show that 95.5% of all recaptures and contacts were within 800 m of initial tagging sites. These results, derived from complete stream sampling, support previous studies indicating that a high percentage of resident stream salmonids remain in the same area of stream throughout the year.

Movement and Mortality of Adult Brown Trout in the Motupiko River, New Zealand: Effects of Water Temperature, Flow, and Flooding

“…The movement rates we observed were also similar to the range of movement rates reported for spawning rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in New Zealand (321-487 m/d; Dedual and Jowett 1999;Venman and Dedual 2005), but lower than that reported for bull trout Salvelinus confluentus (up to 4.4 km/d; Swanberg 1997). The total distances moved by brown trout in our study (up to 41 km) were also within the range reported elsewhere for brown trout (Allen 1951;Clapp et al 1990;Meyers et al 1992;Burrell et al 2000;Knouft and Spotila 2002;Ovidio et al 2002;Bettinger and Bettoli 2004;Diana et al 2004;Rustadbakken et al 2004;Heggenes et al 2007), although somewhat less than the 76-202 km reported by Young (1994), Wilson and Boubee (1996), and Strickland et al (1999). Maximum movements are presumably constrained by the size of the catchments studied and the distances among foraging, refuge and spawning habitats.…”

An alien fish threatens an endangered parasitic bivalve: the relationship between brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and freshwater pearl mussel (Margaritifera margaritifera) in northern Europe

“…The finding that brown trout is usually a better host than salmon in these kinds of small headwater tributaries is not surprising, as brown trout is often the only salmonid species that naturally colonises such streams (Erkinaro 1995, Knouft and Spotila 2002, while salmon prefers larger channels (Klemetsen et al 2003, Johansen et al 2005. However, the results underline the importance of the brown trout populations to FPM conservation in small watercourses.…”

“…However, it should be noted that the occurrence of adult mussels must also be confirmed when glochidia in salmonids are found, because possible migrations of FPMparasitized salmonids may confuse the findings, despite the fact that a resident brown trout usually stays within a small area throughout the year (e.g. Burrell et al 2000, Knouft andSpotila, 2002). As an additional limitation, the electrofishing method including naked-eye examination of FPM glochidiosis should only be used in spring or early summer, i.e.…”

Dispersal and demography of brown trout, Salmo trutta, inferred from population and family structure in unstable Mediterranean streams

“…Results from some studies have supported the notion that movement of resident individuals is limited (Knouft & Spotila, 2002;Rodríguez, 2002) whereas others have detected substantial dispersal (reviewed by Gowan et al, 1994;Höjesjö et al, 2007). Recently, Young et al (2010), using radiotelemetry and ecological data, observed little movement for most of the so called ''resident'' individuals, although large displacements up to 40 km were observed for a few.…”

“…Trout may also move to search for better food resources and feeding habitat (Gowan & Fausch, 2002). Some ecological studies have demonstrated reduced movement of resident brown trout, with movement limited to just few individuals competing and looking for profitable foraging sites (Knouft & Spotila, 2002;Lobón-Cerviá, 2000). In our study, sampling was carried out in July, and brown trout in the Son River reproduce in November.…”