Disordered Climate Threatens Short-Distance Migrants

In the global warming world, the migratory and breeding behaviors of many species have changed, and short-distance migrants may benefit from climate change. With climate change leading to an increasingly disordered climate, we show here that a disordered spring climate disturbs the migration and breeding of a short-distance anadromous fish. In 2020, on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, an abnormally low temperature in April delayed the migration rhythm of Gymnocypris przewalskii by nearly 10 days, while the gonadal development rhythm of the breeding population was almost normal. The phenology mismatch decreased the migrating populations by 30–70%, reducing the larval flux by nearly 80%. This case reveals that for short-distance migrants, different phenologies within the same species respond to disordered climates differently, which leads to phenology mismatches and then threatens the species. Along with increasing local abnormal climate events, short-distance migrants need more attention and conservation actions.

From drought to deluge: spatiotemporal variation in migration routing, survival, travel time and floodplain use of an endangered migratory fish

We developed a novel statistical model to relate the daily survival and migration dynamics of an endangered anadromous fish to river flow and water temperature during both extreme drought and severe flooding in an intensively managed river system. Our Bayesian temporally stratified multistate mark recapture model integrates over unobserved travel times and route transitions to efficiently estimate covariate relationships and includes an adjustment for telemetry tag battery failure. We applied the model to acoustic-tagged juvenile Sacramento river winter-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and found that survival decreased with decreasing river flows and increased water temperatures. We found that fish were likely to enter at a large floodplain during flood conditions and that survival in floodplain was comparable to the mainstem Sacramento river. Our study demonstrates the response of an endangered anadromous fish population to extreme spatial and temporal variability in habitat accessibility and quality. The general model framework we introduce here can be applied to telemetry of migratory fish through systems with multiple routes to efficiently estimate spatiotemporal variation in survival, travel time, and routing.

State of populations and fishing of semi-anadromous fish in the North-Eastern Caspian sea

Semi-anadromous fish (roach, bream, pike-perch, asp) are the main objects of fishing in the coastal zone of the North-Eastern part of the Caspian Sea. The state of the populations of these fish changes significantly under the influence of natural and, especially, anthropogenic factors, which have increased in recent years. The aim of this work was to study the current state of populations of semi-anadromous fish in the NorthEastern Caspian Sea. Based on the materials of three years of research (2016, 2018, 2020), with the involvement of literary sources, long-term changes in the size-weight and, age indicators, nutritional status of fish and the sex ratio in populations are considered. It has been established that the state of the semi-anadromous fish populations in the North-Eastern Caspian remains tense at the present time. All populations are characterized by general negative patterns of state change. There are tendencies of decrease in size, weight and age indicators, the number of populations and fish catches are decreasing. These changes were least of all manifested in bream (whose state is relatively stable) and were most pronounced in pike perch. The depressive state of the populations is explained by a decrease in the scale of natural reproduction in recent years, due to a decrease in the water content of the Ural River and the number of spawners allowed to spawn on the river. Marine fisheries in the North-Eastern Caspian are concentrated in shallow waters, which increases the fishing load on semi-anadromous fish and prevents their passage to spawning. It is necessary to reduce the pressure of fishing by reducing the number of nets used in the shallow water area of the North-Eastern Caspian and strict observance of the rule of the forbidden pre-estuary space of the river Ural. English version of the article on pp. 87-94 is available at URL: https://panor.ru/articles/state-of-populations-and-fishing-of-semi-anadromous-fish-in-the-north-eastern-caspian-sea/64076.html