Poster Details
IS CARBON DIOXIDE AN EFFECTIVE DETERRENT AGAINST INVASIVE BIGHEAD AND SILVER CARP? AN ASSESSMENT OF BEHAVIOR AND MOVEMENT PATTERNS IN OUTDOOR PONDS
The invasion of bighead and silver carp threatens the ecology and economies of the Upper Mississippi River and Great Lakes regions. As a result, there is great interest in developing non-physical barriers that restrict carp movement while still allowing for commercial and recreational traffic. Carbon dioxide (CO2) has potential for use as a deterrent, but behavioral responses and movement patterns of carp subjected to CO2 barriers are not well-described. Here, we investigated how CO2 exposure may alter the behavior and movement patterns of bighead and silver carp by analyzing high spatial and temporal resolution telemetry datasets from CO2 trials in experimental ponds. We found CO2 exposure changed carp swimming angles and speeds but had no impact on acceleration. We constructed a Markov-chain model to predict movement in response to CO2 and found carp were more likely to move during CO2 exposure than either before or after exposure. Our results show that both species actively avoid CO2, providing evidence that it is a promising deterrent to the spread of invasive carp in natural ecosystems. In addition, our quantitative approaches for assessing behavioral responses are generalizable to other high-resolution telemetry fisheries datasets.
Collin Mulcahy (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), State University of New York at Cobleskill, mulcahc736@cobleskill.edu;
Barbara Bennie (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, bbennie@uwlax.edu;
Douglas Baumann (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, dbaumann@uwlax.edu;
Roger Haro (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, roger.haro@nau.edu;
KathiJo Jankowski (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, kjankowski@usgs.gov ;
Molly Van Appledorn (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, mvanappledorn@usgs.gov;
Richard Erickson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), USGS, rerickson@usgs.gov;
Lauren Borland (Primary Presenter/Author), The University of Texas at Austin, lauren.borland@utexas.edu;