Health, condition, and survival of creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) across a gradient of stream habitat quality following an experimental cortisol challenge

Nagrodski, Alexander; Suski, Cory D.; Cooke, Steven J.

doi:10.1007/s10750-012-1331-6

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…A number of techniques are available to answer these questions, including broad-scale examinations, common garden or reciprocal cross experiments, artificial selection, and modeling (Hoffmann and Sgrò, 2011). While these techniques are useful for characterizing the physiological ability of organisms to respond to anthropogenic environmental change, one problem is that many of these studies tend to focus on generalist species and essentially overlook more sensitive species that may be at risk (Blevins et al, 2013;Conover and Schultz, 1995;Falconer, 1990;Nagrodski et al, 2012). This is an important aspect as human land use alterations cause drastic changes in a short time-frame, and specialists may lack the physiological scope to adequately respond, causing population declines (Chevin et al, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress in the neighborhood: Tissue glucocorticoids relative to stream quality for five species of fish

King

Chapman

Cooke

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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Anthropogenic alterations to terrestrial habitat (e.g., urbanization, deforestation, agriculture) can have a variety of negative effects on watercourses that flow through disturbed landscapes. Currently, the relationship between stream habitat quality and fish condition remains poorly understood. The use of physiological metrics such as glucocorticoids (GCs) provides a useful tool for quantifying these effects by relating the health of resident fishes to stream quality. To date, however, most studies that measure GC levels tend to focus on a single, large-bodied species, rather than evaluating how GCs may be influenced differently between species in a community. In this study, we measured cortisol, the glucocorticoid found in fishes, from fish tissues to quantify effects of habitat degradation on the glucocorticoid function of five species of juvenile and small-bodied stream fish which differ ecologically and phylogenetically. Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, brown bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus, white sucker Catostomus commersonii, pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus, and logperch Percina caprodes were sampled from a reference and a degraded stream. Upon capture, fish were either euthanized immediately, to quantify baseline stress parameters, or following a standardized stressor, to quantify GC responsiveness. As a result of stream degradation largemouth bass possessed altered baseline GC concentrations and brown bullhead and logperch had altered GC responses to a stressor. White sucker and pumpkinseed did not demonstrate any alteration in baseline or post-stress GC concentrations. Together, our results show that different species residing in identical habitats can demonstrate a variety of responses to environmental stress, highlighting the variation in physiological ability to cope under poor environmental conditions, as well as the difficulty of predicting GC dynamics in wild animals. Understanding the relationships between GC function, habitat quality, and population-level processes will increase the ability of researchers and managers to predict how fish communities and aquatic ecosystems will be shaped by anthropogenic environmental change.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stress in the neighborhood: Tissue glucocorticoids relative to stream quality for five species of fish

King

Chapman

Cooke

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…Biochemical and physiological indices of freshwater fish have also been used to assess stream condition (Adams and Ham, 2011;Blevins et al, 2013;Nagrodski et al, 2013). Dynamic indices, such as individual growth, are particularly interesting because they integrate the effect of environmental conditions over extended periods of time (Lucas and Beninger, 1985), providing an assessment in the long-term.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of watershed land use cover on stream fish diversity and size-at-age of a generalist fish

Filgueira

Chapman

Suski

et al. 2016

Ecological Indicators

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“…1522-2152/2016/8901-4108$15.00. DOI: 10.1086/684109 (Nagrodski et al 2012;Blevins et al 2013), and pollutants (Hontela et al 1992). Furthermore, these indexes can respond more rapidly to environmental conditions than population-level metrics, in which effects are evident only after significant changes in mortality, reproductive output, or distribution (Ellis et al 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Watershed-Scale Land Use Activities Influence the Physiological Condition of Stream Fish

King¹,

Chapman²,

Midwood³

et al. 2016

Physiological and Biochemical Zoology

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Land use changes within watersheds can have large effects on stream ecosystems, but the mechanistic basis of those effects remains poorly understood. While changes to population size presumably reflect underlying variation in organismal health and condition, such individual-level metrics are rarely evaluated in the context of ecosystem disturbance. To address this deficiency, we combined physiological sampling with geographic information systems to quantify the effects of land use on physiological indicators of health in largemouth bass. More specifically, we first quantified blood metrics relating to nutrition, oxidative stress, and the glucocorticoid stress response from largemouth bass residing in eight watersheds. We then used Akaike's information criterion to define relationships between these blood metrics and land cover, including forests, agricultural areas, urban areas, and wetlands. The proportion of forest cover in a watershed was the best predictor of blood metrics representing recent feeding and resistance to oxidative stress, whereas the proportion of wetlands was the best predictor of glucocorticoid function; however, further investigation is needed, as the explanatory power of the models was relatively low. Patterns in energy reserves were not influenced by any land use practices. Interestingly, anthropogenic land use categories, such as urban and agricultural areas, were not the best predictor for any blood metrics. Together, our results indicate that fish health is most related to natural features of a landscape rather than anthropogenic land uses. Furthermore, these findings suggest that physiological methods could supplement traditional population and community assessments to develop a more comprehensive understanding of ecosystem interactions and improve stream management.

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Health, condition, and survival of creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus) across a gradient of stream habitat quality following an experimental cortisol challenge

Cited by 13 publications

References 71 publications

Stress in the neighborhood: Tissue glucocorticoids relative to stream quality for five species of fish

Stress in the neighborhood: Tissue glucocorticoids relative to stream quality for five species of fish

The influence of watershed land use cover on stream fish diversity and size-at-age of a generalist fish

Watershed-Scale Land Use Activities Influence the Physiological Condition of Stream Fish

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