Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons^™

Prey Selection By The Northern Watersnake, Nerodia Sipedon, Kyle O' Connell

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Prey selection and composition of the northern waternake, Nerodia sipedon was investigated between 8/2010 and 3/2011 by palpation of stomach contents in the field and conducting laboratory trials. 41 snakes were captured, five yielded prey contents. Fish parts, freshwater mussels, and an insect exoskeleton were found. No amphibians were found despite availability at study sites. Snakes in the laboratory underwent 22 trials, feeding on 11 occasions. Snakes fed on an equal number of both fish species, revealing no selection. Further research is needed to determine the rate of digestion of N. sipedon.

Assessing Anglers Identification Of Common Fish Species Of Nebraska, Jason Reed

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Creel surveys, also known as angler surveys, entail individual interviews with anglers. The interviews include a variety of questions pertaining to their fishing trip on that particular day. The interviewer asks the angler questions that include, but are not limited to what species they caught that day, the size of the fish, how many hours they spent fishing that day, what bait they were using, etc. If the angler does not know the species caught or misidentifies the species there is the potential for the recorded data to negatively impact management techniques that rely on the creel survey data. One …

Multilocus And Parametric Analyses Of The Evolutionary History Of The Amazonian Peacock Cichlids, The Genus Cichla (Teleostei: Cichlidae), Stuart Willis

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate knowledge of species boundaries and species phylogeny are fundamental to testing hypotheses of recent evolutionary processes, but the estimation of these partitions is challenging due both to inherent confusion about what is being estimated as well as the data available to estimate them. Using multilocus data from mtDNA, microsatellites, and nuclear locus sequences of over 1100 individuals, we delimited eight separately evolving species of Cichla rather than the 15 described. Among species we found evidence of rare but widespread introgressive hybridization, while within these species we observed evidence of long-term gene exchange and constrained evolutionary trajectories. In most cases …

Morphological Variation Between Juvenile White Bass And Juvenile Hybrid Striped Bass, Ryan W. Lueckenhoff

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While identifying recruitment bottlenecks for white bass Morone chrysops, we encountered difficulty distinguishing between age-0 white bass and age-0 hybrid striped bass M. saxatilis x chrysops. Accurate identification of juvenile white bass and hybrid striped bass will improve the quality of data gathered for research and monitoring efforts. The first objective of this study was to estimate biologists’ accuracy identifying juvenile white bass and juvenile hybrid striped bass, and to determine which characteristics biologists were using during identification. Overall, identification accuracy was 71%. Biologists who placed less emphasis using the characteristic "broken horizontal lines" or who examined >99 …

La Crosse Fish Health Center Onalaska, Wisconsin

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

The La Crosse Fish Health Center (Center) is located in Onalaska, Wisconsin in the southwest corner of the state bordering the Mississippi River. The Center is one of nine fish health laboratories operated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to serve the National Fish Hatchery System. The Center was established in 1962 and moved to its current facilities in 1995. The staff consists of eight permanent w/ 1 vacancy, 4 experience program students, and 2 student volunteers.

As an aquatic animal health laboratory, the Center services include health inspections, diagnostics, training opportunities, and technical information exchange to five Regional …

Jackson National Fish Hatchery Restoring America's Fisheries

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

Jackson NFH was originally established in 1950 as part of the Palisades Dam Act. Today, the hatchery’s primary emphasis is producing eggs and fish to mitigate for fish losses from Federal water development projects and for Tribes, States, and research facilities. The 40 acre Jackson NFH station is located on the USFWS National Elk Refuge. The hatchery rears native Snake River cutthroat trout for a distribution area that covers close to 18,000 square miles. The facility is also part of the USFWS National Broodstock Program.

Carterville Fishery Resources Office

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

Carterville Fishery Resources Office (FRO) was established in 1981 and is located at the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Marion, Illinois. The office provides fishery management assistance to other Fish and Wildlife Service offices, federal and state agencies, and Department of Defense military bases in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. Carterville FRO accomplishes its mission of conserving, enhancing, and protecting fish and aquatic ecosystems by working with partners.

Carterville FRO, in partnership with the Columbia FRO, assists the 28 states of the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association (MICRA) with a basin-wide paddlefish stock assessment. Carterville FRO has operated a …

Ecology And Management Of Channel Catfish Ictalurus Punctatus And Flathead Catfish Pylodictis Olivaris Populations In The Missouri River, Ne, Cameron Wesley Goble

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus and flathead catfish Pylodictis olivaris are two of the most important freshwater recreational or commercial species in the United States. Catfish populations in the Missouri River are important resources to the people of Nebraska and surrounding states. The objective of my study was to determine the present status of catfish populations in the Missouri River, Nebraska. Specifically I evaluated population characteristics such as relative abundance, population size and density, size structure, condition, age structure, growth, and mortality. I used a stratified random sampling design and generalized linear mixed modeling approach to assess differences in population characteristics …

The 100th Meridian Initiative: A Strategic Approach To Prevent The Westward Spread Of Zebra Mussels And Other Aquatic Nuisance Species, Susan Mangin

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

Zebra mussels are prolific alien invaders that have rapidly become
established in waters of the eastern United States and Canada. These
natives of the Black, Caspian, Azov and Aral Sea drainage basins were first
discovered in Lake St. Clair near Detroit, Michigan, in 1988. By 1991, they
had spread throughout the Great Lakes basin and are now established
throughout the Mississippi River basin and are spreading west into
Oklahoma. Except for Oklahoma, zebra mussels have not been detected in
open waters of the West. However, without effective prevention measures,
their invasion into the West is a real and imminent possibility. …

2010 Vegetation Survey Of The Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge (Final Report To The Nebraska Game And Parks Commission, U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service, And The Sandhills Prairie Refuge Association), Robert F. Steinauer

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission: White Papers, Conference Presentations, and Manuscripts

Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge (FNNWR) is located on the Niobrara River in north central Cherry County, NE. There is little detailed information available documenting the vegetation of FNNWR. Tolstead (1942) studied the grasslands of northern Cherry County, (including FNNWR) with a focus on describing the dominant species of grassland types and determining the relationships between vegetation distribution and environmental variables and management practices. Churchill et al (1988) described the vascular flora of The Nature Conservancy’s nearby Niobrara Valley Preserve. Fiest et al (2010) conducted vascular plant surveys on portions of the FNNWR in 2009 and compiled a partial vascular …

Ultimate Biochemical Oxygen Demand In Semi-Intensively Managed Shrimp Pond Waters, Bartholomew W. Green, George H. Ward

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Three independent studies were conducted to quantify ultimate biochemical oxygen demand (UBOD) and the corresponding decomposition rate constant for production pond (average 21.5 ha each) waters and effluents on six semi-intensively managed marine shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) farms in Honduras. Samples were collected during the rainy season in studies 1-3 and during the dry season only in study 1. Pond water samples were collected during the culture period and/or at harvest. The dry season 30-d biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₃₀) of pond waters across all farms was 26% lower and UBOD was 54% lower, but the decomposition rate …

Using The Judas Technique To Locate And Remove Wintertime Aggregations Of Invasive Common Carp, P. G. Bajer, Christopher J. Chizinski, P. W. Sorensen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Radio- and acoustic telemetry in three Midwestern lakes demonstrated that common carp, Cyprinus carpio L., aggregate as water temperatures descend below 10C. Particularly dense aggregations formed at temperatures <5 >C, and once located, these aggregations could be removed with an efficiency of up to 94% using seine nets. Carp aggregated just below the surface of the ice (approximately 1.5 m) and rarely descended to warmer waters, which extended down to 10 m. Although aggregations consistently formed close to shore, their locations could not be explained by temperature or dissolved oxygen. The aggregations also moved frequently, making radio-tagged fish invaluable to locate …

Mixed-Source Reintroductions Lead To Outbreeding Depression In Second-Generation Descendents Of A Native North American Fish, David D. Huff, Loren M. Miller, Christopher J. Chizinski, Bruce Vondracek

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Reintroductions are commonly employed to preserve intraspecific biodiversity in fragmented landscapes. However, reintroduced populations are frequently smaller and more geographically isolated than native populations. Mixing genetically, divergent sources are often proposed to attenuate potentially low genetic diversity in reintroduced populations that may result from small effective population sizes. However, a possible negative tradeoff for mixing sources is outbreeding depression in hybrid offspring. We examined the consequences of mixed-source reintroductions on several fitness surrogates at nine slimy sculpin (Cottus cognatus) reintroduction sites in south-east Minnesota. We inferred the relative fitness of each crosstype in the reintroduced populations by comparing …

Implications Of Community Concordance For Assessing Stream Integrity At Three Nested Spatial Scales In Minnesota, U.S.A., Christine L. Dolph, David D. Huff, Christopher J. Chizinski, Bruce Vondracek

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

1. Fish and invertebrate assemblage data collected from 670 stream sites in Minnesota (U.S.A.) were used to calculate concordance across three nested spatial scales (statewide, ecoregion and catchment). Predictive taxa richness models, calibrated using the same data, were used to evaluate whether concordant communities exhibited similar trends in human-induced taxa loss across all three scales. Finally, we evaluated the strength of the relationship between selected environmental variables and the composition of both assemblages at all three spatial scales.

2. Significant concordance between fish and invertebrate communities occurred at the statewide scale as well as in six of seven ecoregions and …

Breeding Bird Response To Partially Harvested Riparian Management Zones, Christopher J. Chizinski, Anna Peterson, Joann Hanowski, Charles R. Blinn, Bruce Vondracek, Gerald J. Niemi

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

We compared avian communities among three timber harvesting treatments in 45-m wide even-age riparian management zones (RMZs) placed between upland clearcuts and along one side of first- or second-order streams in northern Minnesota, USA. The RMZs had three treatments: (1) unharvested, (2) intermediate residual basal area (RBA) (targeted goal 11.5m²/ha, realized 16.0m2/ha), and (3) low RBA (targeted goal 5.7m²/ha, realized 8.7m²/ha). Surveys were conducted one year pre-harvest and three consecutive years post-harvest. There was no change in species richness, diversity, or total abundance associated with harvest but there were shifts in the types of …

Spatial And Temporal Patterns And The Influence Of Abiotic Factors On Larval Fish Catches In The Lower Niobrara River, Nebraska, Greg A. Wanner, Kristen L. Grohs, Robert A. Klumb

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

The Niobrara River has a natural hydrograph and temperature regime with the lower 32 km protected under the National Wild and Scenic River system managed by the National Park Service. The largest threat to this river is decreased instream flows due to water withdrawals for agriculture. The Niobrara River a large tributary to the Missouri River may positively influence fish production. However, no information exists regarding phenology of fish spawning or what abiotic factors may influence spawning. Our objectives were to examine the taxonomic composition and the spatial and temporal patterns of the larval fish assemblage in relation to environmental …

Yellowthroat: Wildlife Management Area

United States Fish and Wildlife: Staff Publications

Yellowthroat Wildlife Management Area (WMA) is managed as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System by the Fort Niobrara / Valentine National Wildlife Refuges complex staff. Yellowthroat WMA is a 480-acre area managed for migratory birds. Our goal is to restore this former cropland to native prairie by using management techniques such as prescribed burning, grazing, weed control, water level manipulations, and planting native grasses. A variety of wildlife can be seen in the wetlands and grasslands, including the yellow-throated warbler for which the place is named.