Nonnative bigheaded carps are established in the Mississippi River and there is substantial concern about their potential entry into the interconnected Laurentian Great Lakes. While electrical barriers currently exist as a preventative measure, there is need for additional control mechanisms to promote barrier security through redundancy. We tested the effectiveness of infused carbon dioxide gas (CO2) as a tool to influence the movement and behavior invasive bigheaded carps, namely Bighead Carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and Silver Carp H. molitrix, as well as native Bigmouth Buffalo Ictiobus cyprinellus, Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus, Paddlefish Polyodon spathula, and Yellow Perch Perca flavescens in an experimental pond. Individuals were monitored with acoustic telemetry before, during, and after CO2 addition to the pond. We noted distinct changes in fish behavior following CO2 addition. Each species except Paddlefish maintained farther distances from the CO2 infusion manifold relative to controls. Both bigheaded carp species had slower persistence velocities (persistence of a movement in a given direction) following CO2 infusion and Bighead Carp used a smaller area of the pond immediately after CO2 addition. Pond pH progressively decreased up to 1.5 units following CO2 infusion. This work provides evidence that could inform future research to enhance existing control measures used to deter high‐risk invasive fishes, such as bigheaded carps. Received July 27, 2015; accepted January 11, 2016 Published online April 27, 2016
Aquatic hypercarbia, either naturally occurring or anthropogenically induced, can have extensive impacts on aquatic environments and resident organisms. While the impact of acute hypercarbia exposure on the behavior and physiology of fishes has been well studied, relatively little work has examined the physiological impact and acclimation capacity of fishes to chronic hypercarbia. To better understand the impacts of prolonged hypercarbia exposure, largemouth bass were held at ambient CO2 (13 mg L(-1)) and elevated CO2 (31 mg L(-1); ≈ 21,000 µatm) for 58 days. Following this acclimation period, fish were subjected to three separate, yet complementary, experiments: (1) acute hypercarbia challenge of 120 mg L(-1) CO2 for 1 h to quantify physiological and molecular responses; (2) hypercarbia avoidance challenge to compare CO2 agitation and avoidance responses; and (3) swim performance challenge to quantify burst swimming performance. Acclimation to 31 mg L(-1) CO2 resulted in a significant constitutive upregulation of c-fos expression in erythrocytes, combined with significant constitutive expression of hsp70 in both gill and erythrocytes, relative to controls. Largemouth bass acclimated to elevated CO2 also had a reduced glucose response (relative to controls) following an acute CO2 exposure, indicating a reduced stress response to CO2 stressors. In addition, largemouth bass acclimated to elevated CO2 conditions required 50 % higher CO2 concentrations to illicit agitation behaviors and displayed prolonged burst swimming abilities in high CO2 environments relative to controls. Together, results demonstrate that largemouth bass exposed to chronic hypercarbia may possess a physiological advantage during periods of elevated CO2 relative to naïve fish, which may permit increased performance in hypercarbia.
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