Although environmental DNA (eDNA) has been used to infer the presence of rare aquatic species, many facets of this technique remain unresolved. In particular, the relationship between eDNA and fish distribution is not known. We examined the relationship between the distribution of fish and their eDNA (detection rate and concentration) in a lake. A quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for a region within the cytochrome b gene of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio or ‘carp’), an ubiquitous invasive fish, was developed and used to measure eDNA in Lake Staring (MN, USA), in which both the density of carp and their distribution have been closely monitored for several years. Surface water, sub-surface water, and sediment were sampled from 22 locations in the lake, including areas frequently used by carp. In water, areas of high carp use had a higher rate of detection and concentration of eDNA, but there was no effect of fish use on sediment eDNA. The detection rate and concentration of eDNA in surface and sub-surface water were not significantly different (p≥0.5), indicating that eDNA did not accumulate in surface water. The detection rate followed the trend: high-use water > low-use water > sediment. The concentration of eDNA in sediment samples that were above the limit of detection were several orders of magnitude greater than water on a per mass basis, but a poor limit of detection led to low detection rates. The patchy distribution of eDNA in the water of our study lake suggests that the mechanisms that remove eDNA from the water column, such as decay and sedimentation, are rapid. Taken together, these results indicate that effective eDNA sampling methods should be informed by fish distribution, as eDNA concentration was shown to vary dramatically between samples taken less than 100 m apart.

Although the common carp is globally distributed, it only reaches extreme densities in certain regions. We hypothesized that this phenomenon might be linked to recruitment bottlenecks which carp overcome where environmental conditions create unstable peripheral areas that it can access for spawning and nursery habitat. To test this hypothesis, the abundance, movement and reproductive success of carp was determined in two systems of inter-connected lakes in the North American Midwest whose shallow basins frequently experience winterhypoxia ('winterkill'). Radio-tracking demonstrated that while adult carp overwinter in deep lakes that do not winterkill, they aggressively move into winterkill-prone shallow regions in the spring to spawn. The significance of this behavior was demonstrated by ageing analyses which found that carp recruit only in interconnected shallow lakes and then only in years following severe winter hypoxia. Presumably this strategy allows carp to exploit nursery habitat that is relatively free of predators. It likely evolved in response to seasonally variable conditions in the carp's native habitat in the Ponto-Caspian region. This life history may also explain the carp's abundance in other unstable regions such as southern Australia and could potentially be exploited to control this damaging invasive.

Radio‐ and acoustic telemetry in three Midwestern lakes demonstrated that common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., aggregate as water temperatures descend below 10 °C. Particularly dense aggregations formed at temperatures <5 °C, and once located, these aggregations could be removed with an efficiency of up to 94% using seine nets. Carp aggregated just below the surface of the ice (approximately 1.5 m) and rarely descended to warmer waters, which extended down to 10 m. Although aggregations consistently formed close to shore, their locations could not be explained by temperature or dissolved oxygen. The aggregations also moved frequently, making radio‐tagged fish invaluable to locate them. Coldwater aggregations of carp may reflect a type of shoaling behaviour and can be exploited with the aid of radio‐tagged (Judas) fish to control this invasive fish effectively. Similar approaches might be developed for other gregarious invasive fishes.

Although the common carp (Cyprinus carpio), an invasive benthic fish from Eurasia, has long been strongly implicated in the disappearance of vegetative cover and reduced waterfowl abundance in North American shallow lakes, the details of this relationship are obscure. This study documented ecological changes in a recently restored shallow lake (Hennepin and Hopper Lakes, IL, USA) at a time that it was experiencing a large increase in its carp population. We estimated the abundance and biomass of carp 7 years after this lake had been restored and then back-calculated carp population size across time while examining changes in the lake's plant and waterfowl communities. We found that the biomass of carp remained below *30 kg/ha for 5 years following restoration, but then increased to *100 kg/ha in the sixth year following a strong recruitment event. Although a carp biomass of \30 kg/ha had no discernible effects on vegetative cover (which exceeded 90%) or waterfowl (which exceeded 150,000 individuals during fall censuses), the increase to 100 kg/ha was associated with a *50% decrease in both vegetative cover and waterfowl. A further increase in carp biomass to over 250 kg/ha during the seventh year coincided with a decrease in the vegetative cover to 17% of the lake's surface and a decline in waterfowl use to *10% of its original value. These data suggest that the common carp is extremely damaging to the ecological integrity of shallow lakes when its density exceeds *100 kg/ha. Since the biomass of carp in Midwestern shallow lakes commonly exceeds this value by 3-4 times, it seems likely that carp are responsible for the large-scale habitat deterioration described in many of these ecosystems.

SummaryDemographic models for the shovelnose (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) and pallid (S. albus) sturgeons in the Lower Missouri River were developed to conduct sensitivity analyses for both populations. Potential effects of increased fishing mortality on the shovelnose sturgeon were also evaluated. Populations of shovelnose and pallid sturgeon were most sensitive to age-0 mortality rates as well as mortality rates of juveniles and young adults. Overall, fecundity was a less sensitive parameter. However, increased fecundity effectively balanced higher mortality among sensitive age classes in both populations. Management that increases population-level fecundity and improves survival of age-0, juveniles, and young adults should most effectively benefit both populations. Evaluation of reproductive values indicated that populations of pallid sturgeon dominated by ages ‡35 could rapidly lose their potential for growth, particularly if recruitment remains low. Under the initial parameter values portraying current conditions the population of shovelnose sturgeon was predicted to decline by 1.65% annually, causing the commercial yield to also decline. Modeling indicated that the commercial yield could increase substantially if exploitation of females in ages £12 was highly restricted.

Why certain species of fish become invasive is poorly understood and a key obstacle to restoring many of the world's ecosystems. In this study we tested whether variation in biotic resistance exerted by native predators might explain the reproductive success of the common carp, a large and fecund invasive species that typically spawns in outlying and unstable shallow habitat. An initial three-year study of the relative abundance of youngof-year (YOY) carp in interconnected lakes in the Upper Mississippi River Basin discovered that YOY carp are only found in shallow waters that experience winter hypoxia (winterkill) and have low densities of the native egg-predators that otherwise dominate these locales. A follow-up experiment tested if native fish predation on carp eggs could explain this distribution. It found that while carp eggs survived in winterkill lakes, they only survived in non-winterkill lakes when protected by a mesh that excluded fish. Large numbers of carp eggs were found in the stomachs of native fish inhabiting lakes that did not winterkill. We conclude that common carp, and likely many other highly mobile and fecund invasive fish, have evolved life histories to avoid egg predators and can become invasive when they are absent.

Laboratory growth and food consumption data for two size classes of age 2 year yellow perch Perca flavescens, each fed on two distinct feeding schedules at 21° C, were used to evaluate the abilities of the Wisconsin (WI) and Karas–Thoresson (KT) bioenergetics models to predict fish growth and cumulative consumption. Neither model exhibited consistently better performance for predicting fish body masses across all four fish size and feeding regime combinations. Results indicated deficiencies in estimates of resting routine metabolism by both models. Both the WI and KT models exhibited errors for predicting growth rates, which were strongly correlated with food consumption rate. Consumption‐dependent prediction errors may be common in bioenergetics models and are probably the result of deficiencies in parameter values or assumptions within the models for calculating energy costs of specific dynamic action, feeding activity metabolism or egestion and excretion. Inter‐model differences in growth and consumption predictions were primarily the result of differences in egestion and excretion costs calculated by the two models. The results highlighted the potential importance of parameters describing egestion and excretion costs to the accuracy of bioenergetics model predictions, even though bioenergetics models are generally regarded as being insensitive to these parameters. The findings strongly emphasize the utility and necessity of performing laboratory evaluations of all bioenergetics models for assurance of model accuracy and for facilitation of model refinement.

Data from laboratory evaluations of seven fish bioenergetics models (BEMs) were used to investigate possible associations between BEM prediction error in relative growth rate (RGR error ) and levels of model input variables: mean daily food-consumption rate and fish body weight. Correlation between RGR error and fish body weight was found in three BEMs applied under submaintenance feeding conditions. A strong correlation between RGR error and mean daily consumption level was observed in all models over full consumption ranges; consumption level explained 70%-96% of variation in RGR error . All BEMs underestimated (by 2-to 5-fold) growth at lower consumption levels and overestimated (by 2-to 3-fold) growth at higher consumption levels. RGR error values associated with higher consumption levels were greater (up to 22 cal·g -1 ·day -1 ) than those at lower consumption levels (up to 10 cal·g -1 ·day -1 ). Correlation between consumption rate and RGR error in all seven models indicates widespread systematic error among BEMs that likely arises from deficiencies in consumption-dependent model parameters. Results indicate that many BEMs are substantially inaccurate when predicting fish growth from higher feeding rates or estimating consumption from higher growth rates, even when higher consumption levels or growth episodes are of short duration. Findings obtained under submaintenance feeding conditions indicate that additional body-weight-and consumption-dependent terms should be added to BEM subequations for routine metabolism to account for metabolic reduction.Résumé : Les données des évaluations en laboratoire de sept modèles bioénergétiques (BEM) de poissons nous ont servi à étudier les associations possibles entre l'erreur de prédiction par les BEM du taux relatif de croissance (RGR erreur ), d'une part, et la valeur des variables d'entrée des modèles, soit le taux journalier moyen de consommation de nourriture et la masse corporelle des poissons, d'autre part. Il existe une corrélation entre RGR erreur et la masse corporelle des poissons dans trois des BEM utilisés dans des conditions d'alimentation inférieures au niveau de maintien (SMFC). Il y a aussi une forte corrélation entre RGR erreur et le taux journalier moyen de consommation dans tous les modèles sur toute l'étendue des taux de consommation; le taux de consommation explique 70 -96 % de la variation de RGR erreur . Tous les BEM sous-estiment la croissance (par un facteur de 2-5) aux faibles taux de consommation et la surestiment (par un facteur de 2-3) aux taux de consommation plus élevés. Les RGR erreur associées aux taux plus élevés de consommation sont plus grandes (pouvant atteindre 22 cal·g -1 ·jour -1 ) que celles liées aux taux de consommation plus faibles (atteignant 10 cal·g -1 ·jour -1 ). La corrélation entre le taux de consommation et RGR erreur dans les sept modèles indique qu'il y a une erreur systématique générale dans les BEM qui provient vraisemblablement d'imprécisions des paramètres des modèles reliés à la consommation. Nos rés...