Effect of substrate size on sympatric sand darter benthic habitat preferences
| Autor: | Austin A. Rizzo, Dustin M. Smith, Patricia A. Thompson, Stuart A. Welsh |
|---|---|
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
siltation Population Ammocrypta sand substrate Aquatic Science 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Darter lcsh:QH540-549.5 education Granule (geology) Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics lcsh:Environmental sciences lcsh:GE1-350 education.field_of_study biology Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Ammocrypta clara biology.organism_classification Substrate (marine biology) Geography Habitat destruction Habitat benthic habitat lcsh:Ecology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Freshwater Ecology, Vol 32, Iss 1, Pp 455-465 (2017) |
| ISSN: | 2156-6941 0270-5060 |
| Popis: | The western sand darter, Ammocrypta clara, and the eastern sand darter, A. pellucida, are sand-dwelling fishes that have undergone range-wide population declines, presumably owing to habitat loss. Habitat use studies have been conducted for the eastern sand darter, but literature on the western sand darter remains sparse. To evaluate substrate selection and preference, western and eastern sand darters were collected from the Elk River, West Virginia, one of the few remaining rivers where both species occur sympatrically. In the laboratory, individuals were given the choice to bury into five equally available and randomly positioned substrates ranging from fine sand to granule gravel (0.12–4.0 mm). The western sand darter selected for coarse and medium sand, while the eastern sand darter was more of a generalist selecting for fine, medium, and coarse sand. Substrate selection was significantly different (p = 0.02) between species in the same environment, where the western sand darter preferred coarser substrate more often compared to the eastern sand darter. Habitat degradation is often a limiting factor for many species of rare freshwater fish, and results from this study suggest that western and eastern sand darters may respond differently to variations in benthic substrate composition. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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