Intra‐Annual Variability of Silver Carp Populations in the Des Moines River, USA

Sullivan, Christopher J.; Camacho, Carlos; Weber, Michael J.; Pierce, Clay L.

doi:10.1080/02755947.2017.1330785

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Combined with low occupancy rates of grass carp, sampling during periods of low river discharge and using a small number of sampling occasions could lead to missing observations and an incorrect inference of population distribution. These findings corroborate other studies that detail the importance of accounting for site-specific river discharge patterns when sampling for highly mobile bigheaded carp (silver and bighead carp) where captures are also difficult (i.e., DeGrandchamp et al, 2008;Sullivan et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Surface thalweg water temperature was measured monthly with a YSI 550A (Yellow Springs Instruments, Yellow Springs, Ohio) during fish sampling at each site, and mean daily discharge values on the day of sampling were obtained from U.S. Geological Survey (https://www.usgs.gov/) gauging stations upstream from each sampling location (Figure S1). Because other invasive carp (i.e., silver carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and bighead carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis ) inhabiting the UMR are influenced by variable discharge regimes (e.g., DeGrandchamp, Garvey, & Colombo, ; Sullivan, Camacho, Weber, & Pierce, ), a number of hydrological metrics were considered (e.g., 3‐day running average and minimum/maximum daily discharge) but were highly correlated (Pearson's correlation coefficient > 0.9). Thus, mean daily discharge was used because these data are highly correlated and readily available to biologists.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of river discharge on grass carp occupancy dynamics in south‐eastern Iowa rivers

Sullivan

Weber

Pierce

et al. 2018

River Research & Apps

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Despite the longstanding presence of grass carp Ctenopharyngodon idella in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR) watershed, information regarding their populations remains largely unknown, in part because capture is difficult. Occupancy models are a popular wildlife assessment tool to account for imperfect detections but have been slow to be adopted in fisheries. Herein, we used occupancy modelling to evaluate the influence of two environmental covariates (river discharge and water temperature) on grass carp occupancy, extinction, colonization, and detection at nine sites within south‐eastern Iowa rivers from April to October 2014 and 2015. Grass carp were detected at least once at all but one site. The most parsimonious model indicated that grass carp colonization probability increased from 0.15 to 0.67 with increases in river discharge. In contrast, occupancy (0.20), extinction (0.29), and detection (0.50) probabilities were temporally constant. Models indicated that water temperatures did not influence grass carp extinction or colonization probabilities relative to river discharge. Cumulative grass carp detection probability approached 1.0, whereas conditional occupancy estimates were less than 0.1 when using five or more sampling transects. The use of a robust design occupancy model allowed us to estimate site occupancy rates of grass carp corrected for imperfect detections, while demonstrating the importance of river discharge for site colonization. These results can be used to assess the distribution of a cryptic fish while helping to guide grass carp sampling and removal efforts.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of river discharge on grass carp occupancy dynamics in south‐eastern Iowa rivers

Sullivan

Weber

Pierce

et al. 2018

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“…Discharge affected main channel (nearshore and mid) habitat use in a non‐linear manner, as evidenced by the marked reductions in densities of both species when discharge was elevated. This contrasts with a study of an Upper Mississippi River tributary where electrofishing catch per unit effort (cpue) of silver carp in the main channel remained constant or increased in response to higher discharge (Sullivan, Camacho, Weber, & Pierce, ). However, we propose that main channel use, at least during the nonspawning period when our sampling took place, likely involves a trade‐off between plankton availability (which is high at low‐to‐moderate discharge; Allan & Castillo, ; Calkins et al, ) and the energetic cost of foraging and maintaining position.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…We suggest that further refinement of the hydroacoustic process should include development of ex situ 360° aspect TL–TS equations for both species of bigheaded carp, and analysis of species‐specific acoustic target properties that may reduce reliance on paired capture sampling for species identification (e.g., Burwen, Fleischman, Miller, & Jensen, ). Similarly, our present sampling design could be improved by more frequent within‐year replicate surveys to detect possible seasonal variation (e.g., DeGrandchamp et al, ; Sullivan et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustically derived habitat associations of sympatric invasive bigheaded carps in a large river ecosystem

MacNamara

Coulter

Glover

et al. 2018

River Research & Apps

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Bigheaded carp (Hypophthalmichthys spp.) occur throughout much of the Mississippi Basin, USA. Efforts to control the spread of these invasive species require information on their spatial ecology, though sampling is hindered by their broad extent, habitat tolerances, and species-specific behaviour. Mobile hydroacoustics was used to quantify habitat and depth use of bigheaded carp over four years in the heavily invaded Lower Illinois River, a major Mississippi tributary and potential dispersal pathway to the Great Lakes. Horizontally oriented transducers (combined with capture gear for species designation) enabled sampling of the main habitat features in this large flood plain river. Silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) were dominant over bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) at all but one site, although habitat use was similar for both species. Densities were highest in lotic backwaters, followed by lentic backwaters and nearshore main channel, with lowest densities in the mid main channel. Bigheaded carp size and species composition were independent of habitat type. Depth associations were similar for both species, with average occurrence at 2.5-3.5 m in the main channel and 1-2 m in backwaters. However, depth relative to the river bed was largely similar across habitat types. Bigheaded carp density and depth use in the main channel were linked non-linearly to river discharge and water temperature, respectively; densities were reduced during high discharge, whereas depth use became shallower at higher temperatures. Density-hydrology trends were less apparent in backwaters. These findings highlight critical aspects of bigheaded carp spatial ecology that will facilitate effective management in invaded and at-risk ecosystems.

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“…Naturalized populations of Grass Carp occur throughout much of the UMR watershed, particularly in river sections bordering Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa (Camacho 2016;Larson et al 2017;NAS 2019). However, Grass Carp populations have yet to reach high densities, unlike other invasive carps inhabiting the UMR (e.g., Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix; Irons et al 2007;Kolar et al 2007;Sullivan et al 2017). For example, fish community monitoring efforts from 1990 to 2017 in Mississippi River Pools 8, 13, and 26 using pulsed-DC boat electrofishing captured only 260 Grass Carp (,0.001% of total catch in number; LTRM 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison of Grass Carp Population Characteristics Upstream and Downstream of Lock and Dam 19 of the Upper Mississippi River

Sullivan

Weber

Pierce

et al. 2020

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

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Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella have been intentionally stocked for aquatic vegetation control across the Midwestern United States for several decades. During the 1970s, escapement of Grass Carp into the Missouri River facilitated their naturalization into much of the Mississippi River basin, including the Upper Mississippi River. Lock and Dam 19 (LD19) in Keokuk, Iowa, is a high-head dam that represents a focal point for naturalized Grass Carp management where populations may differ between upstream and downstream pools as result of limited upstream migration, but potential differences between populations have yet to be evaluated to the best of our knowledge. The objective of this study was to compare the relative abundance, size structure, condition, growth, and recruitment variability of Grass Carp collected upstream and downstream of LD19. We sampled Grass Carp monthly (April–October) during 2014 and 2015 from four locations in the Des Moines River (downstream of LD19) and five locations throughout the Skunk, Iowa, and Cedar rivers (upstream of LD19) using boat electrofishing and trammel net sets. We captured 29 Grass Carp upstream of LD19 compared with 179 individuals captured downstream. Trammel nets only captured Grass Carp downstream of LD19; trammel net catch per unit effort upstream of LD19 was low and ranged from 0.0 to 8.0 fish/net lift (mean ± SE = 0.39 ± 0.13). Electrofishing catch per unit effort ranged from 0.0 to 22.7 fish/h (1.49 ± 0.30) and was higher downstream (2.42 ± 0.30) of LD19 than upstream (0.57 ± 0.07). Grass Carp downstream of LD19 tended to be smaller, younger, of lower body condition, had higher mortality rates, and were slower growing compared with those collected upstream and to populations documented in other systems. Understanding and monitoring adult Grass Carp population characteristics upstream and downstream of LD19 is necessary to determine how they may change in response to ongoing harvest efforts for invasive carps in these river reaches.

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Intra‐Annual Variability of Silver Carp Populations in the Des Moines River, USA

Cited by 10 publications

References 43 publications

Influence of river discharge on grass carp occupancy dynamics in south‐eastern Iowa rivers

Influence of river discharge on grass carp occupancy dynamics in south‐eastern Iowa rivers

Acoustically derived habitat associations of sympatric invasive bigheaded carps in a large river ecosystem

A Comparison of Grass Carp Population Characteristics Upstream and Downstream of Lock and Dam 19 of the Upper Mississippi River

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