{"id":3002,"date":"2020-08-04T07:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T07:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/habitat.fisheries.org\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2020-08-04T07:00:31","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T07:00:31","slug":"the-effects-of-climate-change-differ-by-habitat-type-for-channel-catfish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/the-effects-of-climate-change-differ-by-habitat-type-for-channel-catfish\/","title":{"rendered":"The effects of climate change differ by habitat type for channel catfish"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Climate change is increasing water temperatures around the world, and while many studies have addressed the impacts of warming water on species such as trout and salmon, much less is known about warm-water species. \u00a0Dr. Jonathan Spurgeon and colleagues at the University of Arkansas, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the Nebraska Cooperature Research Unit set up a study in the Midwestern United States to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 1<\/strong>. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Spurgeon assessed the effect of climate change on the growth rates of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus<\/em>) in waters all across Nebraska over the course of 18 years (Spurgeon et al. 2020).\u00a0 Fish are ectotherms, which mean that their metabolic rates are governed by the temperature of their environment: as temperature increases, so does their growth rate (as long as there is enough food). Channel catfish are common throughout North America and can tolerate a wide range of temperatures. Dr. Spurgeon and colleagues collected climate data from a publicly available database (http:\/\/prism.oregonstate.edu).\u00a0 They also captured catfish and snipped a spine from their pectoral fin to determine each fish\u2019s growth rate.\u00a0 In cross section, the spines resemble tree rings, and age and growth can be estimated in much the same way as with trees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Figure 2.\u00a0 <\/strong>Example of the growth rings from other hard body parts of fish, including an otolith (ear bone) and scale.\u00a0 Arrows are annuli, or the rings that are counted, and the dot represents a false annulus.\u00a0 Figure from O\u2019Malley et al. 2017. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Spurgeon and colleagues also wanted to determine whether the type of habitat where these catfish lived influenced their growth. \u00a0Because their data included information for multiple age classes through a long time period, they were able to look at growth patterns and compare growth between three different habitat types: pit lakes, irrigation and power generation reservoirs, and flood-control reservoirs.\u00a0 Pit lakes are created from sand and gravel mining or the construction of a highway overpass, and irrigation, power-generation, and flood-control reservoirs are created by the impoundment of irrigation canals and rivers.\u00a0 Among these study sites, pit lakes were generally smaller and irrigation\/power-generation reservoirs were typically larger, with flood-control reservoirs in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Figure 3<\/strong>. Examples of water body types with A) pit lake, B) flood-control reservoir, and C) irritation\/power-generation reservoir. Image sources listed below. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The researchers found that channel catfish growth rates increased\nas growing seasons lengthened, but the growth rates were not the same across\nhabitat types.  Catfish in pit lakes and\nflood control reservoirs experienced a miniscule bump in growth rates (1-3%),\nwhereas catfish in irrigation and power-generation reservoirs grew much faster\n(39%).  All of the habitat types\nexperienced the effects of climate change because their growing seasons\nlengthened significantly over the 18 year study (increases from 60-74%). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This study showed that warm-water species like catfish can\nbe impacted by climate change, where longer growing seasons can increase how\nquickly the fish grow and reach maturity. \nThis has major implications because increased growth rates in fish\ntypically result in better survival and bigger populations. However, species\nthat reside in larger, high volume habitats such as reservoirs may be buffered\nfrom dramatic, physiologically harmful changes. The authors suggest that this\nmight explain why catfish that resided in the large irrigation reservoirs got a\nbigger bump in growth rates than the ones in small pit lakes. These results emphasize\nthe need to account for differences between habitat types when predicting the\neffects of climate change and managing fish communities. One size doesn\u2019t fit\nall! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spurgeon JJ, Pegg MA, Pope KL, and Xie L. 2020.  Ecosystem-specific growth responses to\nclimate pattern by a temperate freshwater fish. \nEcological Indicators.  112:\n106130<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo credits<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 1<\/em>: http:\/\/www.fws.gov\/southwest\/fisheries\/uvalde\/species.htm<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 2<\/em>: O\u2019Malley, A., Enterline, C., and Zydlewski, J. (2017) Size and Age Structure of Anadromous and Landlocked Populations of Rainbow Smelt. North American Journal of Fisheries Management. 37:2. 326-336.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Figure 3<\/em>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pit lake: Richard Williams, geograph.org.uk<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Irrigation\/power-generation reservoir: Dan Brekke, https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/infospigot\/9969649893<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flood control reservoir: Ammodramus, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Branched_Oak_Lake_marina_breakwall_1.JPG<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change is increasing water temperatures around the world, and while many studies have addressed the impacts of warming water on species such as trout and salmon, much less is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3003,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research-brief"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/units.fisheries.org\/habitat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}