Movement and Habitat Use by Mottled Sculpin After Restoration of a Sand-Dominated 1^st-Order Stream

Abstract

Anthropogenic activities have greatly altered the natural flow regime of lotic ecosystems in many ways, including dams and culverts, which restrict sediment transport and fragment fish habitat. Sculpins, Cottus spp., are an important food-web link between macroinvertebrates and larger stream fishes and are greatly affected by culverts. Results from a previous study indicate a substantial increase in the relative abundance of mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdii, was observed upstream of a renovated road-stream crossing during the first season after construction. Redistribution of this nature from a putatively sedentary species would have required substantial movement. Our objectives were to quantify postrestoration mottled sculpin movement and habitat use in a restored stream reach. The extent of post-restoration mottled sculpin movement and habitat use were directly measured using telemetry of Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag-marked fish. The maximum linear distance moved by a marked mottled sculpin was 839 m; 23% of marked mottled sculpin moved .100 m. The number of detections of marked mottled sculpin in each segment was significantly correlated with the amount of small wood (5-10 cm diameter). Increased distribution of mottled sculpin in previously unavailable upstream habitats coupled with substantial post-restoration movement distances provides new insight on their potential for redistribution following habitat reconnection, which is an important consideration for stream restoration projects.

Complex postglacial recolonization inferred from population genetic structure of mottled sculpinCottus bairdiiin tributaries of eastern Lake Michigan, U.S.A.

“…Additionally, recent research on C . bairdii recolonization following the restoration of stream‐channel connectivity indicates that individuals are capable of relatively large movements into newly available habitat (up to 839 m over 1 year), facilitating rapid colonization in the absence of conspecifics (Deboer et al , ).…”

March of the sculpin: measuring and predicting short‐term movement of banded sculpin Cottus carolinae

“…() and Deboer et al. (). Upon detection, the ID number from each PIT tag was recorded along with GPS coordinates using the Trimble GeoExplorer 6000.…”

“…; Deboer et al. ). These studies collectively show stationary and mobile components exist within populations distributed across a broad geographic range and across a gradient of streams ranging from first to fourth order (Strahler ; Hudy & Shiflet ).…”

“…We also hypothesised that temporal variation in sculpin movement would result in switching between stationary and mobile movement behaviours for individual fish (Petty & Grossman ; Deboer et al. ).…”

Influence of PIT tags on growth and survival of banded sculpin (Cottus carolinae): implications for endangered grotto sculpin (Cottus specus)

“…Within this vast range, sculpins play intricate roles in small-stream food webs that are crucial to maintaining ecological integrity (Kohler and McPeek, 1989;Dahl, 1998;Miyasaka and Nakano, 1999;Ruetz et al, 2006;DeBoer et al, 2015). Although considered an important species to small-stream ecosystems, minimal information exists for some sculpin species such as the grotto sculpin.…”