Timing of brown trout spawning in Alpine rivers with special consideration of egg burial depth

Abstract

Timing of spawning, habitat use and egg burial depths of brown trout were studied in seven Swiss (alpine and prealpine) rivers, which differed in size, altitude and flow regime. In general, we observed brown trout spawning activity between the end of October and the beginning of January. The spawning duration differed significantly, however, between rivers, ranging from 28 to 72 days. Analysis of environmental parameters for their influence on spawning activity revealed mean water temperature and altitude as the most explanatory variables. Detailed investigation of redd characteristics based on water velocity, water depth and substrate size clearly showed differences between positions on the redd. Brown trout in Alpine rivers preferred to use velocities of 30–40 cm·s−1, water depths of 10–20 cm and substrates of 16–32 mm for spawning. It has to be noted, however, that recorded values cover almost the whole range of data on spawning habitats that has been reported in literature so far. A special focus of this study was on egg burial depths, which were surprisingly not found to differ significantly between the rivers despite their different flow regimes. Recorded egg burial depths were, however, found to be distinctly lower (mean burial depth: 3.8 cm) than reported by almost any study so far. We see this observation of low burial depths in Alpine rivers as useful in the context of scouring effects, especially when evaluating the influence of scouring on fish populations.

Reproductive Ecology, Spawning Behavior, and Juvenile Distribution of Mountain Whitefish in the Madison River, Montana

“…Timing of spawning movements in the Madison River was not correlated with water temperature, although declining water temperature is believed to be an important cue for migration and spawning of autumn-spawning fish (Swanberg 1997;Brenkman et al 2001;Riedel and Peter 2013). In the Madison River, the timing of Mountain Whitefish migration and spawning was similar over 3 years despite wide variability in temperatures and rates of temperature decline.…”

Temporal and Spatial Patterns of Fish Response to Hydromorphological Processes

“…Jakobsen et al ., ) and a protracted spawning season (Poncin, ; Fredrich et al ., ). Spawning was observed lasting for 2 months in brown trout Salmo trutta (Riedl and Peter, ), 6 months in sharpnose shiner Notropis oxyrhynchus (Durham and Wilde, ) and chub Leuciscus cephalus (Fredrich et al ., ), and 7 months in barbel Barbus barbus (Poncin, ).…”

Abiotic Characterization of Brown Trout (Salmo trutta f. fario) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Spawning Redds Affected by Small Hydropower Plants - Case Studies from Austria

“…The abiotic parameters considered to be most important for salmonids are sufficient water depths (e.g. 10-20 cm; Grost et al, 1990;Riedl and Peter, 2013), favourable flow velocity ranges (e.g. 20-50 cms À1 ; Jungwirth et al, 2003;Louhi et al, 2008) and the local availability of high-quality (i.e.…”