Persistent disturbance by commercial navigation alters the relative abundance of channel-dwelling fishes in a large river

Abstract

We provide the first evidence for chronic effects of disturbance by commercial vessels on the spatial distribution and abundance of fishes in the channels of a large river. Most of the world's large rivers are intensively managed to satisfy increasing demands for commercial shipping, but little research has been conducted to identify and alleviate any adverse consequences of commercial navigation. We used a combination of a gradient sampling design incorporating quasicontrol areas with Akaike's information criterion (AIC)-weighted model averaging to estimate effects of disturbances by commercial vessels on fishes in the upper Mississippi River. Species density, which mainly measured species evenness, decreased with increasing disturbance frequency. The most abundant species -gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum) and freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens) -and the less abundant shovelnose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus platorhynchus) and flathead catfish (Pylodictis olivaris) were seemingly unaffected by traffic disturbance. In contrast, the relative abundance of the toothed herrings (Hiodon spp.), redhorses (Moxostoma spp.), buffaloes (Ictiobus spp.), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), sauger (Sander canadensis), and white bass (Morone chrysops) decreased with increasing traffic in the navigation channel. We hypothesized that the combination of alteration of hydraulic features within navigation channels and rehabilitation of secondary channels might benefit channel-dependent species.Résumé : Nous présentons les premières données qui montrent que les navires commerciaux causent des perturbations chroniques de la répartition spatiale et de l'abondance des poissons dans les chenaux d'une grande rivière. La plupart des grandes rivières du globe sont aménagées de façon intensive pour accommoder les besoins grandissants du transport fluvial commercial, mais il y a peu de recherches sur l'identification et la mitigation des conséquences négatives possibles de la navigation commerciale. Afin d'évaluer les effets des perturbations causées par les navires commerciaux sur les poissons du Mississippi supérieur, nous utilisons en combinaison un plan d'échantillonnage des gradients avec des quasi-zones témoins et la pondération moyenne des modèles à l'aide du critère d'information d'Akaike (AIC). La densité des espèces, qui représente surtout l'équitabilité des espèces, diminue en fonction de la fréquence des perturbations. Les espèces les plus abondantes -l'alose à gésier (Dorosoma cepedianum) et le malachigan (Aplodinotus grunniens) -et certaines espèces moins abondantes comme l'esturgeon à museau plat (Scaphirhynchus platorhynchus) et la barbue à tête plate (Pylodictis olivaris) ne sont apparemment par affectées par les perturbations causées par le transport. En revanche, les abondances relatives des laquaiches (Hiodon spp.), des suceurs (Moxostoma spp.), des buffalos (Ictiobus spp.), des barbues de rivière (Ictalurus punctatus), des dorés noirs (Sander canadensis) et des bars blancs (Morone chrysops) diminuent en fonction de l...

Potential effects of navigation-induced wave wash on the early life history stages of riverine fish

“…Additionally, immediate and direct effects of ship traffic via pollution, shear stress, wave splash and sediment turbulences have negative consequences on riverine biota (Smart et at., 1985;Tittizer and Schleuter, 1989;Schaefer et al, 1992;Zauner and Schiemer, 1994;Rütten, 1994). Although these effects are temporal, they induce long-term effects on macrophytes, invertebrates and fish through their high frequency (Holland and Sylvester, 1983;Holland, 1986;Murphy et al, 1995;Ali et al, 1999;Arlinghaus et al, 2002;Wolter and Arlinghaus, 2003;Wolter et al, 2004;Gutreuter et al, 2006). Persistent environmental perturbations have a major impact on the structure and composition of fishes at the community level (ONeill, 1999;Magoulick and Kobza, 2003).…”

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“…However, the abundance of gizzard shad and water temperature were also inversely related, suggesting that the observed response to traffic might have been an artefact of recruitment of age-0 cohorts to the trawl during late summer and early autumn. Seemingly in contrast, Gutreuter et al (2006) found strong evidence that persistent disturbance by shipping caused reductions in the abundances of several species within the navigation channel relative to large secondary channels. That apparent difference is reconciled by differences in measurement.…”

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