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Competition among river planktivores: are native planktivores still fewer and skinnier in response to the Silver Carp invasion?

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Abstract

Planktivorous Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix and Bighead Carp H. nobilis have successfully invaded much of the Upper Mississippi River System and its tributaries during the last 30 years. During the initial years of the invasion, concurrent declines in the body condition and the catch per unit effort (CPUE) of planktivorous Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum and Bigmouth Buffalo Ictiobus cyprinellus were attributed to competition with Asian carp. Using an additional seven years of data (2007–2013), we assessed whether Silver Carp have continued to exert adverse pressure on the condition, CPUE, and biomass of native planktivores or whether there is evidence of a potential rebound in the populations of native planktivores. The extended data set reaffirms the body condition and the CPUE of Bigmouth Buffalo remain significantly reduced. However, unlike previous analyses, we also observed significant reductions in the CPUE of Gizzard Shad. Additionally, new results show that the CPUE and biomass of Bigmouth Buffalo were more inversely related to Silver Carp CPUE and biomass relative to the CPUE and biomass of Gizzard Shad. These results reinforce that Silver Carp likely suppress native planktivores and also suggest that diet and other life-history traits may explain some of the subtle differences in species-specific responses. Our results also emphasize that long-term data can be critical to understanding how non-native species can influence native fish population dynamics and how this influence may change over time.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) element. The LTRM is a cooperative effort between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. This work was also in collaboration with the Illinois Natural History Survey, the Illinois River Biological Station, and through an internship to C. Schwinghamer provided by the National Great Rivers Research & Education Center (NGRREC). The authors thank all past and present Illinois River Biological Station staff for the years of dedicated data collection. The authors also thank P. Sullivan for statistical advice, K. Irons for supporting the follow-up analysis to his earlier published work, B. Ickes and B. Schlifer for collation of data, M. McClelland for assistance with data analyses, J. DeBoer for assistance with data analyses and the review of multiple drafts of this manuscript, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments that greatly improved this manuscript.

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  1. Richard M. Pendleton

    Present address: Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Illinois Natural History Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois, Illinois River Biological Station, 704 N. Schrader Ave, Havana, IL, 62644, USA

    Richard M. Pendleton, Levi E. Solomon & Andrew F. Casper

  2. Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Sugar Ridge Fish & Wildlife Area, 2310 East SR 364, Winslow, IN, 47598, USA

    Christopher Schwinghamer

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  1. Richard M. Pendleton
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Correspondence to Richard M. Pendleton.

Electronic supplementary material

Appendix 1

Relationships between average annual catch per unit effort (fish per 15 min day electrofishing; CPUE) and biomass (g per 15 min day electrofishing) of native planktivores in relation to Silver Carp CPUE and biomass (see Table 1) (DOCX 323 kb)

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Pendleton, R.M., Schwinghamer, C., Solomon, L.E. et al. Competition among river planktivores: are native planktivores still fewer and skinnier in response to the Silver Carp invasion?. Environ Biol Fish 100, 1213–1222 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-017-0637-7

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