By Steve Midway Around this time of year throughout much of the northern hemisphere, we take pause to notice the beautiful spectrum of colors presented in fall foliage. Have you ever wondered what happens to all of those leaves, where they go, and what types of animals may benefit from this fall bounty? Leaves change…
Category: Ecology: Organisms & Habitats
Is the Kiddie Pool Safe? Pollution in Coastal Fish Nurseries Affects Offshore Populations
By Tobey Curtis Do you take your young kids to a daycare or nursery? These are places where we expect our children to be, at minimum, safe and nurtured. Nurseries help ensure survival and growth to a well-adjusted adulthood. It turns out that many ocean-going fish use the same strategy for their young. It has…
The Fate of Released Aquarium Fish
It’s been estimated that close to 10% of US households have aquariums. And why not—aquariums are an inexpensive and interactive way to observe a variety of fish, often with minimal upkeep for a pet. Yet despite the ease with which you can purchase and possess a wide range of fish species, there is a growing…
Scientists group fishes to improve prediction
Brandon Peoples Most scientists share the gripping compulsion to place things into tidy categories. Fish ecologists are no exception. Why group? Grouping species helps improve our understanding and management of aquatic ecosystems. Because local fish diversity can be quite high, predicting responses of individual species to environmental change or nonnative introductions can be difficult. Grouping…
Get to Know an Introduced Species: Northern Snakehead
This article begins a series of 10 posts dedicated to discussing introduced fish species in US waters. Some species are headliners, while others have been around so long that we think of them as part of our wild fauna. Check back for more installments, and Get to Know an Introduced Species! Steve Midway The Background…
Fish Fry? Forest Fires and Stream Fish
Many of us growing up in the US can easily recall Smokey the Bear, the US Forest Service’s mascot who placed in our hands the responsibility of preventing forest fires. The message was solid—for those who enjoy the forest, be sure to extinguish campfires and other sources of fire. And for many years, forest fire…
American shad: Invading the West
By Patrick Cooney The disconnect of East and West was no longer so vast with the driving of the Golden Spike on the United States Transcontinental Railroad on May 10, 1869. Seth Green, an entrepreneur who is often credited with the invention of the fish reel, saw a golden opportunity to expand his empire with…
The Adipose Fin: Old Mysteries with New Answers
If you are a fish, your fins are obviously critical for making a living. Fins provide a long list of essential functions, from generation of movement to stabilization, turning, stopping, and dynamic lift (to name a few). Yet only select families of fish—namely trouts and salmons and catfishes—possess a small nub-like fin behind their dorsal…
Anadromous, Catadromous, Amphidromous, Oceanodromous, or Potamodromous
By Patrick Cooney Can you say ‘potamodromous‘ and can you guess what it means? A) Mood disorder from eating too many potatoes. B) An aquatic dinosaur that crawled across land. C) A migration of fish entirely in freshwater. If you pronounced it like ‘poe-tuh-moe-droe-miss’, then you are off to a great start. But what about the…
Why fishes need floods
In April of 2011, the river near my house was bigger than I had ever seen it. One afternoon I went to get a closer look at the flooding at a park near the dam. Although the park sat more than 20 feet higher than the normal river’s edge, water stood where children had played…
When the Levee Breaks
It’s that time of the year again…people across the northern hemisphere are looking towards dark skies and thinking of rain. For many fish biologists, high water simply means a perfectly good spring day spent in the office. For me, it means a long day tending to a flooded experiment. But to others, spring floods often…
Marine Protected Areas
By: Dana Sackett Marine protected areas (MPAs) have been used as a tool to protect biodiversity, genetic diversity, habitat, and reverse declining trends in overfished populations across the world. Many of these MPAs allow at least some fishing while excluding a form of fishing deemed unacceptable (e.g. harvest that is destructive or targets a particular…
Bold, hungry, anti-social, but anxiety-free fish
By: Dana Sackett We have all seen the numerous drug advertisements on TV with their list of ridiculous disclaimers and adverse effects. These commercials are an indication, and have even been considered the reason behind, the increased societal use of pharmaceuticals drugs in recent years. In fact, it was only in 1997 that the FDA…
Why Do Mussels Matter?
By Brandon Peoples If you’re like me, you’ll be hitting the creeks this spring to catch a trout or smallmouth bass. But did you know that as you wade along, the very stream bed you walk on is teeming with life? In fact, much of the stream bed itself is alive… Mussels are diverse and…
Why do native plants matter?
Plants are often overlooked as important contributors to the long term health and integrity of aquatic systems. As a result, impacts to riparian areas as well as invasive vegetation introductions have had devastating impacts on fish populations across the globe. For example, Appalachian brook trout were once found in abundance from Canada to Georgia along…
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