Journal
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES AND AQUATIC SCIENCES
Volume 71, Issue 11, Pages 1625-1634Publisher
CANADIAN SCIENCE PUBLISHING
DOI: 10.1139/cjfas-2013-0585
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Canadian Wildlife Federation Endangered Species Fund
- Fisheries and Oceans Canada Endangered Species Recovery Fund
- British Columbia Ministry of Environment
- Habitat Trust Conservation Fund
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Understanding the impacts of hydrological drought, and the role that refugia play in mitigating these impacts, is crucial to the conservation of freshwater fishes. This is especially true for species adapted to riffles, which are typically the first habitats to dewater at low discharge. We examined the relationship among decreasing stream discharge, abundance, and habitat use for Nooksack dace (Rhinichthys cataractae ssp.), an endangered riffle-dwelling species. A complementary experimental manipulation examined the effects of flow on growth rate across a discharge gradient in riffle and pool habitats. We found that low-velocity habitats and decreased discharge in experimental channels result in reduced dace growth and that decreasing stream flow was coincident with declines in Nooksack dace abundance. This study demonstrates the sensitivity of Nooksack dace to hydrological drought, and insofar as Nooksack dace are ecologically typical of small riffle-dwelling invertivore fishes, our results suggest that use of pools does not mitigate sublethal effects of declining flows on growth, although pools may provide refuge from the most negative effects of drought (i.e., stranding of fish).
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available