Comparisons of Fish Species Traits from Small Streams to Large Rivers

Goldstein, Robert M.; Meador, Michael R.

doi:10.1577/t03-080.1

Cited by 106 publications

(115 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Nevertheless, this mechanism of community assembly predicts species additions moving downstream, which is not supported by our correlative niche models that show tributary species declining in abundance with stream size. Second, predator density tends to increase with stream size (Goldstein and Meador 2004), but our results represent performance in the absence of predation. Predation can strongly and directly affect survival through consumption (Schlosser 1988).…”

Section: Complementary Distributions Of Congenersmentioning

confidence: 79%

Towards a mechanistic understanding of fish species niche divergence along a river continuum

Troia

Gido

2014

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Environmental niche modeling is a valuable tool but it often fails to identify causal links between environmental gradients and individual-or population-level performance that drive species' distributions. Correlation between the abundances of stream fish species and longitudinal position in stream networks is well documented and is hypothesized to occur through differential environmental filtering of trophic traits. Still, trophically similar congeners often exhibit complementary distributions along stream size gradients, suggesting that other mechanisms are important. We present niche models to test the hypothesis that four congeneric pairs (Teleostei: Cyprinidae) exhibit complementary distributions along a gradient of stream size in the central Great Plains of Kansas, USA. Stream size was the strongest predictor of abundance compared to five other environmental variables tested and three of the four species pairs exhibited complementary distributions along a stream size gradient. We carried out field experiments to quantify potentially causal environmental gradients (food resources, temperature, and turbidity) and four measures of individual performance (adult spawning success and juvenile survival, condition, and growth) along a stream size gradient for one congeneric pair: Pimephales notatus, a tributary species and P. vigilax, a river mainstem species. These experiments revealed an increase in temperature and food resources with stream size, along with a corresponding increase in adult spawning success, juvenile condition, and juvenile growth for both species. We conclude that these congeners respond similarly to abiotic gradients associated with the river continuum and that complementary distributions are a consequence of biotic interactions, differential environmental filtering evident in an unmeasured performance metric, or differential environmental filtering by a direct environmental gradient operating at longer timescales.

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Section: Complementary Distributions Of Congenersmentioning

confidence: 79%

Towards a mechanistic understanding of fish species niche divergence along a river continuum

Troia

Gido

2014

Ecosphere

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“…For 704 example, some authors (e.g., Poff and Allan 1995;Goldstein and Meador 2004) utilized a combination of various species traits, such as trophic ecology, reproductive biology, substrate preference, geomorphic preference, locomotion, body morphology, and reproductive strategy, in their assessment of the relationship between functional organization and hydrological variability. Others (e.g., Hoeinghaus et al 2007) used a combination of trophic ecology and life history characteristics in their examination of scale dependency in structuring factors associated with functional and taxonomic organization of stream fish assemblages.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, habitat templates predict changes in reproductive traits with habitat stability, such as increasing parental care with decreased variability (Townsend and Hildrew 1994). Other studies examined functional organization in various contexts, including longitudinal zonation (Schlosser 1982), hydrological stability (Poff and Allan 1995), landscape variability (Angermeier and Winston 1999), intercontinental convergence (Lamouroux et al 2002), river size (Goldstein and Meador 2004), and scale-dependency of structuring factors (Hoeinghaus et al 2007). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Stream Fish Assemblages with Niche Apportionment Models: Patterns, Processes, and Scale Dependence

Higgins

Strauss

2008

Trans Am Fish Soc

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Abstract.-Understanding patterns in terms of the mechanistic processes that produce them is the essence of ecology. However, many studies merely document nonrandom patterns of species coexistence without providing insight into the structuring mechanisms and their scale dependence. Moreover, few studies address the mechanisms driving functional diversity. The objectives of this study were to document empirical patterns of species coexistence within stream fish assemblages across a broad geographic region, addressing both the functional and taxonomic organization of those assemblages, and to determine whether the structuring mechanisms are scale dependent. We gathered data from a report published by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department that provided empirical species abundance distributions for 62 assemblages from 7 ecoregions and 18 river basins. For each assemblage, we simulated expected species abundances using five previously published models of niche apportionment. These models generate relative abundances in proportion to niche breadth and are constrained to maintain observed species richness, but they do not include information on species identity. These models included four stochastic variants of a geometric series (dominance preemption, random fraction, broken stick, and dominance decay) in which species abundances relate directly to niche breadth and one model (random assortment) in which abundances are independent of niche partitioning altogether. To assess scale dependence, we repeated the analyses after pooling assemblages by ecoregion, river basin, and the entire state. The patterns of niche apportionment for assemblages pooled according to river basin are more consistent with local assemblages than with assemblages pooled according to ecoregions or the entire state. These results suggest that niche apportionment plays a crucial role in structuring stream fish assemblages and that functional groups divide niche space more evenly than do species.

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“…Casatti et al (2006), Braga and Andrade (2005) and Goldstein and Meador (2004) also reported an increase in the number of species per stream order. This relationship of species richness and stream order is considered to be a result of the species area relationship (Angermeier and Schlosser, 1989).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

The fish community as an indicator of biotic integrity of the streams in the Sinos River basin, Brazil

2010

Braz. J. Biol.

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The basin of the Sinos River, located in the northeastern part of Rio Grande do Sul state, Brazil, has been highly impacted by industrial and urban activities. Water quality is low because of domestic and industrial sewage discharges. Most of the tributaries have suffered drastic structural interventions like canalisations and the removal of riparian vegetation. The aims of this study were to: 1) assess the diversity of fish at 34 sampling sites in twenty-four tributaries of the Sinos River basin; 2) quantify impact level by the Shannon-Wiener diversity index and an adapted Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI); and 3) check the interference of environmental impacts, formerly quantified in a Stream Corridor Assessment Survey (SCAS), on the fish assembly and 4) compare the relationship between the IBI with stream order. Fish sampling was performed by electric fishing in the period from April 2004 to August 2006. A total of 4,869 individuals were sampled, representing 61 species, 14 families and six orders. Significant relationships of the Shannon-Wiener index and IBI with SCAS scores and stream orders were found. Of all impacts that make up the SCAS score, only channel modifications were significantly correlated with IBI. These results indicate that the adaptation of the IBI was effective and performed better than the Shannon-Wiener diversity index when related directly to specific impact categories. The application of the IBI with the SCAS and the other variables was efficient in the tributaries of the Sinos River basin because it showed the biotic degradation in accordance with changes in physical habitat. Keywords

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Comparisons of Fish Species Traits from Small Streams to Large Rivers

Cited by 106 publications

References 16 publications

Towards a mechanistic understanding of fish species niche divergence along a river continuum

Towards a mechanistic understanding of fish species niche divergence along a river continuum

Modeling Stream Fish Assemblages with Niche Apportionment Models: Patterns, Processes, and Scale Dependence

The fish community as an indicator of biotic integrity of the streams in the Sinos River basin, Brazil

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