Surviving winter hypoxia: behavioral adaptations of fishes in a northern Wisconsin winterkill lake

Abstract

SynopsisWinterkill lakes often have a characteristic fish community, presumably composed of species able to survive winter hypoxia. Our research on a small winterkill lake in northern Wisconsin indicates that fishes common in winterkill lakes have behavioral adaptations for tolerating or avoiding winter hypoxia. We examined the distribution of fishes within the lake during one winter (December through May), and fish migrations into and out of the lake for two consecutive years. As DO within the lake declined in late fall, adult-sized fishes of four species, brook stickleback, finescale date, redbelly date, and fathead minnow, moved to the ice-water interface where DO levels were highest. Stickleback, and to a lesser extent, fathead minnows, also moved toward the more highly oxygenated water near the inlet. During the first year, young-of-the-year fishes of blacknose shiner, Iowa darter, redbelly date, and fathead minnow, avoided hypoxic conditions by emigrating from the lake via the outlet stream in late fall and early winter while DO within the lake was still relatively high. Blacknose shiner, redbelly date, and fathead minnow returned to the lake in spring. Almost no fishes were trapped leaving the lake in the second fall-winter season. Central mudminnows neither moved to the ice-water interface nor emigrated from the lake as DO dropped. Mudminnows survive winter hypoxia by breathing oxygen-containing bubbles trapped beneath the ice. These relatively simple behavioral adaptations allow fishes to survive or avoid hypoxic conditions lethal to other species and may help explain the consistency in fish communities of winterkill lakes.

Nitrification contributes to winter oxygen depletion in seasonally frozen forested lakes

“…Microbial oxygen consumption may be particularly influential when ice and snow cover a lake's surface, because airwater gas exchange is essentially cut off while oxygen production from aquatic photoautotrophs can be low due to darkness (Kirillin et al 2012;McKnight et al 2000). In extreme cases of oxygen depletion, ''winterkill'' of fish can occur (Magnuson et al 1985). However, surprisingly little is known about the rates of nitrification under ice in seasonally frozen lakes, and how this nitrogen (N) transformation is related to a lake's winter oxygen budget (but see Knowles and Lean 1987).…”

Effects of low dissolved oxygen on predation on estuarine fish larvae

“…Such oxygen concentrations are physiologically stressful to many fish species (Rom-bough 1988), resulting in reduced larval survival, development and growth (Siefert & Spoor 1974, Rogers et al 1982, US-EPA 1986, van der Veer & Bergman 1986. Studies of freshwater teleosts indicate that low dissolved oxygen concentrations also can modify juvenile and adult growth rates, feeding rates, habitat use, and susceptibility to predation, as well as adult reproductive activities (Magnuson et al 1985, Suthers & Gee 1986, US-EPA 1986, Kramer 1987, Poulin et al 1987, Saint-Paul & Soares 1987. Low dissolved oxygen in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries is thought to limit populations of ecologically and economically important finfish and shellfish species through both habitat restriction and direct mortality (Kemp & Boynton 1981, Officer et al 1984, Price et al 1985, Breitburg 1988, Coutant & Benson 1988, Osman et al 1990.…”

Effects of Management Practices and Environmental Factors on Largemouth Bass Abundance in Illinois Inland Lakes

“…Laboratory experiments suggest that largemouth bass are adapted to cold water [63] [64]. Fish mortality due to low dissolved oxygen caused by ice and snow cover has mostly been reported for small, shallow (<1 m) eutrophic lakes with rich vegetative cover [65] [66] [67]. Lakes in Illinois, although eutrophic, are usually deeper and at lower latitudes than in the foregoing studies.…”