Distribution, abundance and overwinter survival of young-of-the-year common carp in a ...

140 Pages·2012·9.56 MB·English

Distribution, abundance and overwinter survival of young-of-the-year common carp in a 1

Midwestern watershed 2

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A THESIS 4

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL 5

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY 6

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Jacob B. Osborne 8

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IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 10

FOR THE DEGREE OF 11

MASTER OF SCIENCE 12

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Peter W. Sorensen, Advisor 14

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March, 2012 16

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Copyright 2012 by 46

Jacob B. Osborne 47

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All rights reserved 49

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Acknowledgements
I am grateful to many people and organizations for making possible my graduate
experience and research. My advisor, Dr. Peter Sorensen, provided valuable insights into
the scientific and writing processes and ensured that I was fully funded. I received
funding from the National Science Foundation through the Introduced Species and
Genotypes Integrated Graduate Education Research and Traineeship (ISG-IGERT) as
well as from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund and the
Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD).
Dr. David Andow and Dr. Przemek Bajer served on my committee and Dr. Bajer
also provided guidance on how to conduct the mark-recapture efforts described in Study
2 of Chapter 2, served as an otolith reader for Study 2 of Chapter 2, and collected the
winter dissolved oxygen data reported in Table 2 of Chapter 2. Dr. Christopher Chizinski
collected the data reported in Study 1 of Chapter 2 and Justine Koch conducted the 2011
mark-recapture effort reported in Study 2 of Chapter 2. Dr. Hangkyo Lim and Dr. Haude
Leveseque started and supervised much of the lab work presented in appendices 4, 5 and
6.
Special thanks to Justin Silbernagel for helping with long days of trap-netting and
electro-fishing for Study 2 in Chapter 2. Jordan Wein also assisted greatly with boat
electro-fishing in that study. Brett Miller and Mary Headrick provided valuable logistical
support and Mary also served as an otolith reader for Study 2 in Chapter 2. Special thanks
to the Olson family in Maplewood, MN for use of their boat access on Casey Lake;
electro-fishing probably would have been impossible without it. Thanks also to all of the
volunteers, whose names are too smudged on my data sheets for me to acknowledge them
specifically, who assisted with fieldwork.
Assistance with animal care for fishes used in laboratory experiments was
provided by several undergraduates, including Chris Johnson, Brian Moe, Eric Sanft and
Elizabeth Fox. Jay Maher also provided invaluable assistance coping with technical
difficulties related to the aquaculture facilities.
Finally, I would like to thank my family, especially my girlfriend, Marta Ribera,
who have been with me through the highs and lows of this process. Their unending
support has made this possible.
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Abstract
The common carp (Cyprinus carpio) is one of the most widespread and damaging
invasive fishes in North America, yet little is known about its early life history. This
paper reports the results of two studies which tested the hypothesis that shallow lakes
prone to winter hypoxia (i.e. unstable lakes) serve as nurseries for common carp in
interconnected lake systems while lakes that do not experience winterkill (i.e. stable
lakes) do not function as nurseries. Six lakes in an interconnected lake system in south-
central Minnesota (four stable and two unstable) were sampled using trap-nets in June-
August of 2009, 2010 and 2011 and in all three years age-0 carp were captured only in
the two unstable lakes. These surveys also revealed that the fish communities in stable
lakes were dominated by bluegill sunfish and largemouth bass, species which did not
occur naturally in the unstable lakes. Mark-recapture and ageing studies conducted in
2010 in the two carp nurseries indicated that there were ~13,000 age-0 carp in Casey
Lake and ~35,000 age-0 carp in Markham Lake. Additional mark-recapture efforts the
following summer indicated that ~33% of those fish survived their first winter in Casey
Lake while ~4% survived in Markham Lake. Independent trap-net and electro-fishing
surveys in the nursery lakes in 2010 revealed that their fish communities were dominated
by shorter length classes of hypoxia-tolerant species. Implications of these results for
management of nuisance carp populations in interconnected lake systems in North
America are discussed.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................i

Abstract..........................................................................................................................................................ii

Table
 of
 Contents..............................................................................................................iii

List
 of
 Tables......................................................................................................................iv

List
 of
 Figures......................................................................................................................v

Chapter
 1:
 Literature
 Review..............................................................................................1

The
 distribution
 of
 juvenile
 fishes
 in
 temperate
 lakes
 of
 North
 America...................2

Common
 carp
 in
 temperate
 regions
 .............................................................................3

Biogeography.............................................................................................................3

General
 biology..........................................................................................................3

Management.............................................................................................................4

Life
 history.................................................................................................................5

Distribution
 of
 juvenile
 carp......................................................................................6

Factors
 contributing
 to
 the
 invasiveness
 of
 carp.......................................................7

Study
 overview..........................................................................................................8

Chapter
 2:
 Distribution,
 abundance
 and
 overwinter
 survival
 of
 young-­‐of-­‐the-­‐year
 carp
 in

a
 Midwestern
 watershed..................................................................................................10

Summary......................................................................................................................11

Introduction.................................................................................................................12

Methods.......................................................................................................................13

Results..........................................................................................................................19

Discussion.....................................................................................................................21

Tables...........................................................................................................................26

Figures..........................................................................................................................31

References...................................................................................................................42

Appendix 1: Tabular summaries of mark-recapture data and the population estimates
reported in Chapter 2.........................................................................................................52

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Appendix 2: Tabular summaries of mark-recapture data and population estimates of other
fish species inhabiting carp nursery lakes in 2010.............................................................57

Appendix 3: Comparison of the efficiency of three survey techniques for sampling
young-of-the-year carp in nursery lakes............................................................................68

Appendix 4: Experiments investigating the potential use of food odors to facilitate
trapping of young-of-the-year and juvenile common carp................................................71

Appendix 5: Experiments investigating the potential use of pheromones to facilitate
trapping of young-of-the-year and juvenile common carp ...............................................93

Appendix 6: Amino acid release profiles of several fishes found in the North American
Midwest............................................................................................................................100

Appendix 7: Implications of the results of Chapter 2 for ecological risk analysis in
watersheds containing potential common carp nursery habitat.......................................127

Appendix 8: Fishes captured in the stream below Markham Lake.........................................129

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List of Tables 1

Table 1. Organization of the studies described in this paper………………………26 2

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Table 2. Descriptive information about study lakes in the Phalen Chain………….27 4

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Table 3. Fish assemblage in the Phalen Chain …………………………………….28 6

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Table 4. Trap-net catches of fishes in study lakes in the Phalen Chain………........29 8

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Table 5. Abundance estimates of age-0 carp in nursery lakes in 2010 and age-1 carp 10

in nursery lakes in 2011 …………………………………………………………...30 11

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List of Figures 39

Figure 1. Map of the Phalen Chain near St. Paul, MN. …………………………...31 40

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Figure 2. Catches of carp <100mm throughout the Phalen Chain.....……………..32 42

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Figure 3. Length distribution of carp in Casey Lake in 2010…………..................33 44

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Figure 4. Length distribution of carp in Markham Lake in 2010……....................34 46

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Figure 5. Length distribution of carp in Casey Lake in 2011…………..................35 48

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Figure 6. Length distribution of carp in Markham Lake in 2011……....................36 50

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Figure 7. Fish communities in carp nursery lakes in 2010………………………..37 52

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Figure 8. Length distributions of all species captured in Casey Lake in trap-net 54

surveys in 2010…………………………………………………………………....38 55

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Figure 9. Length distributions of all species captured in Casey Lake in electro- 57

fishing surveys in 2010..…………………………………………………………..39 58

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Figure 10. Length distributions of all species captured in Markham Lake in trap-net 60

surveys in 2010…………………………………………………..………………..40 61

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Figure 11. Length distributions of all species captured in Markham Lake in electro- 63

fishing surveys in 2010..…………………………………………………………..41 64

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Chapter 1: A literature review 92

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The distribution of juvenile fishes in temperate lakes of North America 108

Temperate lakes are dynamic environments in which physiochemical and 109

biological conditions vary both spatially and temporally. This heterogeneity results in a 110

diverse range of potential habitats for juvenile fishes lakes (Schindler and Scheuerell 111

2002). However, the distribution of juvenile fishes is often restricted to a narrow subset 112

of these habitats, even if other life stages of the same species utilize additional areas. 113

Habitats that support relatively high densities of juvenile fishes are often referred to as 114

‘rearing’ or ‘nursery’ habitats (Jones et al. 2003) and are generally assumed to ultimately 115

contribute disproportionately more individuals to the adult population than are 116

contributed by adjacent habitats (Beck et al. 2001). 117

Littoral habitats function as nurseries for many lacustrine fishes in North 118

America. In a review of nursery habitats used by fishes inhabiting the Laurentian Great 119

Lakes, Lane et al. (1996) reported that juveniles of most of the 102 species for which data 120

were available were most abundant in water shallower than 2m and were generally 121

associated with aquatic vegetation over sandy or silty substrate. The authors suggested 122

this pattern was because aquatic vegetation provides a physical refuge from predators and 123

also supports invertebrates on which juvenile fishes may feed (Herdendorf et al. 1986; 124

Becker, 1983). Similar patterns have also been documented in smaller lakes. Werner and 125

Hall (1988) studied habitat use of bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) in four 126

Michican lakes ranging in area from 50 to 2000 ha and reported an ontogenetic habitat 127

shift from the limnetic zone, where bluegill larvae were observed feeding for several 128

weeks after hatching, to the vegetated littoral zone, where feeding continued for the rest 129

of the juvenile period. The authors hypothesized that this shift, which was consistent 130

across all four study lakes, was due to reduced risk of predation for the young fish in 131

vegetation compared to open water habitats. Non-vegetated habitats can also function as 132

nurseries. Olson et al. (2003) studied habitat use of young-of-the-year smallmouth bass 133

(Micropterus dolomeiu) in New York lakes and observed that they were found primarily 134

in cobble habitats that lacked vegetation, in spite of the availability of vegetated habitats. 135

Based on subsequent lab experiments the authors concluded that juvenile smallmouth 136

bass were both less vulnerable to predators and also more efficient at foraging in cobble 137

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