Correction: Long-term fish assemblages of the Ohio River: Altered trophic and life history strategies with hydrologic alterations and land use modifications

AbstractLong-term monitoring of species assemblages provides a unique opportunity to test hypotheses regarding environmentally-induced directional trajectories of freshwater species assemblages. We used 57 years of lockchamber fish rotenone and boat electrofishing survey data (1957-2014) collected by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) to test for directional trajectories in taxonomy, trophic classifications, and life history strategies of freshwater fish assemblages in the Ohio River Basin. We found significant changes in taxonomic and trophic composition of freshwater fishes in the Ohio River Basin. Annual species richness varied from 31 to 90 species and generally increased with year. Temporal trajectories were present for taxonomic and trophic assemblages. Assemblage structure based on taxonomy was correlated with land use change (decrease in agriculture and increase in forest). Taxonomic assemblage structure was also correlated with altered hydrology variables of increased minimum discharge, decreased fall rate, and increased rise rate. Trophic composition of fish catch correlated with land use change (decrease in agriculture and increase in forest) and altered hydrology. Altered hydrology of increased minimum discharge, increased fall discharge, decreased base flows, and increased number of high pulse events was correlated with increased counts of herbivore-detritivores and decreased counts of piscivores and planktivores. We did not find directional changes in life history composition. We hypothesized a shift occurred from benthic to phytoplankton production throughout the basin that may have decreased secondary production of benthic invertebrates. This may also be responsible for lower trophic position of invertivore and piscivore fishes observed in other studies.

Download Full-text

Fish assemblages respond to altered flow regimes via ecological filtering of life history strategies

Freshwater Biology ◽

10.1111/fwb.12037 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 58 (1) ◽

pp. 50-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 127

Author(s):

MERYL C. MIMS ◽

JULIAN D. OLDEN

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Fish Assemblages ◽

Flow Regimes ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Ecological Filtering

Download Full-text

Community Ecology of Stream Fishes: Concepts, Approaches, and Techniques

Community Ecology of Stream Fishes: Concepts, Approaches, and Techniques ◽

10.47886/9781934874141.ch5 ◽

2010 ◽

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Life History ◽

Environmental Change ◽

Fish Assemblages ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

The United States ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Population Responses ◽

Hydrologic Variability ◽

Reproductive Life

<em>Abstract</em>.—The flow regime is considered the primary driver of physical processes in riverine ecosystems; thus we expect that the trait composition of fish assemblages might respond similarly to hydrologic variability, even at broad spatial scales. Here, we test the hypothesis that freshwater fish life history strategies on two continents (southern United States and eastern Australia) converge along gradients of hydrologic variability and primary productivity at the drainage scale. Our results show that the fishes of the United States and Australia conform to the three-dimensional adaptive space arising from the trade-offs among three basic demographic parameters of survival, fecundity, and onset and duration of reproductive life. Species from both continents represent the endpoints in adaptive space defining the periodic (19% versus 33% for the United States and Australia, respectively), opportunistic (69% versus 52%), and equilibrium life history strategies (12% versus 15%). We found evidence that fish life history composition of drainage basins in the two continents have converged across similar gradients of hydrologic variability and productivity despite phylogenetic and historical differences. Moreover, these relationships were largely consistent with predictions from life history theory. Increasing hydrologic variability has promoted the greater prevalence of opportunistic strategists (a strategy that should maximize fitness in environmental settings dominated by unpredictable environmental change) while concurrently minimizing the persistence of periodic-type species (a strategy typically inhabits seasonal, periodically suitable environments). Our study provides a conceptual framework of management options for species in regulated rivers because life history strategies are the underlying determinants for population responses to environmental change and therefore can be used to classify typical population responses to flow alteration or mitigation via environmental flow prescriptions.

Download Full-text

Habitat–performance relationships: finding the right metric at a given spatial scale

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences ◽

10.1098/rstb.2010.0085 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 365 (1550) ◽

pp. 2255-2265 ◽

Cited By ~ 186

Author(s):

Jean-Michel Gaillard ◽

Mark Hebblewhite ◽

Anne Loison ◽

Mark Fuller ◽

Roger Powell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Resource Selection ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Animal Performance ◽

Global Positioning ◽

Selection For ◽

The Right ◽

Conceptual Difficulties ◽

Long Term Studies

The field of habitat ecology has been muddled by imprecise terminology regarding what constitutes habitat, and how importance is measured through use, selection, avoidance and other bio-statistical terminology. Added to the confusion is the idea that habitat is scale-specific. Despite these conceptual difficulties, ecologists have made advances in understanding ‘how habitats are important to animals’, and data from animal-borne global positioning system (GPS) units have the potential to help this clarification. Here, we propose a new conceptual framework to connect habitats with measures of animal performance itself—towards assessing habitat–performance relationship (HPR). Long-term studies will be needed to estimate consequences of habitat selection for animal performance. GPS data from wildlife can provide new approaches for studying useful correlates of performance that we review. Recent examples include merging traditional resource selection studies with information about resources used at different critical life-history events (e.g. nesting, calving, migration), uncovering habitats that facilitate movement or foraging and, ultimately, comparing resources used through different life-history strategies with those resulting in death. By integrating data from GPS receivers with other animal-borne technologies and combining those data with additional life-history information, we believe understanding the drivers of HPRs will inform animal ecology and improve conservation.

Download Full-text

Life history theory predicts long-term fish assemblage response to stream impoundment

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences ◽

10.1139/cjfas-2015-0593 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 74 (2) ◽

pp. 228-239 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Joshuah S. Perkin ◽

Natalie E. Knorp ◽

Thomas C. Boersig ◽

Amy E. Gebhard ◽

Lucas A. Hix ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Fish Assemblage ◽

Life History Theory ◽

Fish Assemblages ◽

Time Series Data ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Series Data ◽

Flow Variability ◽

Downstream Flow ◽

Stream Impoundment

Life history theory predictions for hydrologic filtering of fish assemblages are rarely tested with historical time series data. We retrospectively analyzed flow regime and fish assemblage data from the Sabine River, USA, to test relationships between life history strategies and hydrologic variability altered by impoundment construction. Downstream flow variability, but not magnitude, was altered by completion of Toledo Bend Reservoir (TBR) in 1966. Consistent with life history theory, occurrence of opportunistic strategists declined while equilibrium strategists increased as the fish assemblage was transformed between periods immediately after (1967–1973) and approximately one decade after (1979–1982) completion of TBR. Assemblage transformation was related to decline of opportunistic strategists throughout 250 km of river downstream of TBR. Temporal trajectories for opportunistic and intermediate strategist richness modelled as a function of flow variability converged 12 years postimpoundment. The spatiotemporal scaling of our study is novel among tests of life history theory, and results suggest impoundment-induced alteration to natural hydrologic filtering of fish assemblages can operate on the scale of hundreds of stream kilometres and manifest within approximately one decade.

Download Full-text

Long-term changes in the breeding biology of a New Zealand bellbird population suggest plasticity in life-history responses to ecological restoration

10.1101/2021.01.18.427196 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Michelle M. Roper ◽

M.T. Harmer Aaron ◽

Dianne H Brunton

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

New Zealand ◽

Reproductive Success ◽

Ecological Restoration ◽

Breeding Biology ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Local Conditions ◽

Anthornis Melanura ◽

Over Time

AbstractEcological restoration projects provide excellent opportunities to study how animals adapt their life-history strategies in response to changeable environments. A fundamental way animals can optimise reproductive success in changing conditions is trading-off aspects of their breeding system. The New Zealand bellbird (Anthornis melanura) has had a long-term presence on the small restoration island, Tiritiri Matangi Island (Tiri), spanning the island’s degraded agricultural past to its current extensively restored state. We studied the breeding biology of this bellbird population to assess how their reproductive life-history strategies have responded over time to the restoration on Tiri. We compared the current breeding data (2012–2016) of the bellbirds with data from between 2001–2010 (including Baillie, 2011, Cope, 2007), and from 1977–1978 (Anderson and Craig, 2003), prior to the island’s restoration. We also explored associations between abiotic/biotic factors and bellbird reproductive success for the most recent period (2012–2016). Our main finding was that clutch size significantly declined over time from a mean of 3.6 to 2.4 eggs per nest and this decline correlated with increasing population density. This is consistent with a density dependent effect, although further data are required to empirically test this conclusion. Overall, the earliest spring laying dates were in late August and the latest extended to January, with all chicks fledged by the end of February. Nest success was 47% (range 40 – 54%) across 2012–2016, falling within a similar range as previous studies. We found little effect of year, weather, parental age or morphometrics on reproductive success. We observed directional change in patterns of parental investment between 1977–1978 and 2012–2016; in 2012–2016, parents persisted with raising single broods rather than abandoning and re-nesting to raise larger broods. These results suggest that the bellbirds’ life-history traits are plastic in response to local conditions which provides an advantage when repopulating a regenerating or changing habitat.

Download Full-text

How much calcium to shell out? Eggshell calcium carbonate content is greater in birds with thinner shells, larger clutches and longer lifespans

Journal of The Royal Society Interface ◽

10.1098/rsif.2021.0502 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (182) ◽

Author(s):

Stephanie C. McClelland ◽

Phillip Cassey ◽

Golo Maurer ◽

Mark E. Hauber ◽

Steven J. Portugal

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Calcium Carbonate ◽

Bird Species ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Carbonate Content ◽

Ceramic Structure ◽

Optimal Amount ◽

Calcium Carbonate Content ◽

The Individual

The avian eggshell is a bio-ceramic structure that protects the embryo. It is composed almost entirely of calcium carbonate and a small amount of organic material. An optimal amount of calcium carbonate in the eggshell is essential for the embryo's development, yet how the ratio of calcium carbonate to organic matter varies between species has not been investigated. Calcium is a limiting resource for most birds, so its investment in their eggs should be optimized for a bird's life history. We measured the relative calcium carbonate content of eggshells in 222 bird species and tested hypotheses for how this trait has evolved with the life-history strategies of these species and other traits of their respective egg physiologies. We found that (i) eggshell calcium carbonate content was positively correlated with species having thinner eggshells and smaller than expected eggs relative to incubating parental mass, (ii) species with small mean clutch sizes had lower calcium carbonate content in their eggshells, and (iii) for species with larger clutch sizes, eggshell calcium carbonate content was negatively correlated with their mean lifespan. The pattern of lower eggshell calcium carbonate in longer lived, larger clutched birds suggests that calcium provision to the eggshell has long-term costs for the individual.

Download Full-text

Population position along the fast-slow life-history continuum predicts intraspecific variation in actuarial senescence

10.1101/621425 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Hugo Cayuela ◽

Jean-François Lemaître ◽

Eric Bonnaire ◽

Julian Pichenot ◽

Benedikt R. Schmidt

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Intraspecific Variation ◽

Population Variation ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Wild Populations ◽

Captive Populations ◽

Bombina Variegata ◽

In The Wild ◽

Capture Recapture

AbstractPatterns of actuarial senescence can be highly variable among species. Previous comparative analyses revealed that both age at the onset of senescence and rates of senescence are linked to the species’ position along the fast-slow life-history continuum. As there are few long-term datasets of wild populations with known-age individuals, intraspecific (i.e. between-population) variation in senescence is understudied and limited to comparisons of wild and captive populations of the same species, mostly birds and mammals. In this paper, we examined how population position along the fast-slow life history continuum affects senescence patterns in an amphibian, Bombina variegata. We used capture-recapture data collected in four populations with contrasted life history strategies. Senescence trajectories were drawn using Bayesian capture-recapture models. We show that in “slow” populations the onset of senescence was earlier and individuals aged at a faster rate than individuals in “fast” populations. Our study provides one of the few empirical examples of between-population variation in senescence patterns in the wild and confirms that the fast-slow life history gradient is associated with both macroevolutionary and microevolutionary patterns of senescence.

Download Full-text

Growth and survival of aerial roots of hemiepiphytes in a lower montane tropical moist forest in Panama

Journal of Tropical Ecology ◽

10.1017/s0266467499001078 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 15 (5) ◽

pp. 651-665 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Sandra Patiño ◽

Gregory S. Gilbert ◽

Gerhard Zotz ◽

Melvin T. Tyree

Keyword(s):

Life History ◽

Mortality Rate ◽

Life History Strategies ◽

Survival Models ◽

Growth And Survival ◽

Aerial Roots ◽

Moist Forest ◽

Long Term Measurement ◽

Do So

Hemiepiphytic plants grow for part of their life as true epiphytes, then become terrestrial through the production of aerial roots that grow from the canopy to the ground. Long-term measurement of growth, dieback and mortality of aerial roots of hemiepiphytic plants in a lower montane moist tropical forest in western Panama was used to elucidate life-history strategies of hemiepiphytes from two families. The fates of 156 aerial roots of five species of Clusiaceae and Araceae were followed for 10 mo. Some roots were cut to experimentally study the effect of injury on resprouting and survival. Aerial roots of Araceae grew more than twice as fast as those of Clusiaceae but had a much greater mortality rate. Roots of both families grew much faster during the wet than dry season. Even for the fastest growing roots, growth and survival models suggest that only 18% of Araceae roots were likely to survive long enough to reach the ground from a branch 10 m high, whereas 87% of roots of Clusiaceae were likely to do so. This suggests that only those Araceae hemiepiphytes that produce a large number of aerial roots or are located close to the ground are likely to reach the soil.

Download Full-text