Loading…

Quantifying the spatial scale of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) recruitment synchrony

Understanding spatial and temporal fluctuations in animal populations remains a central theme in ecology. Here, we investigated the extent of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) recruitment synchrony across North America in relation to a suite of climatic conditions. Common carp were collected from 21 pop...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences 2017-10, Vol.74 (10), p.1682-1691
Main Authors: Weber, Michael J, Brown, Michael L, Wahl, David H, Shoup, Daniel E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Understanding spatial and temporal fluctuations in animal populations remains a central theme in ecology. Here, we investigated the extent of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) recruitment synchrony across North America in relation to a suite of climatic conditions. Common carp were collected from 21 populations up to a linear distance of 2300 km between the most southern and northern locations. Age-frequency histograms were used to estimate year-class strength, and correlation coefficients were used to evaluate synchrony among populations and environmental variables. We then evaluated relationships between common carp recruitment and winter growing degree-days (GDD), summer GDD, precipitation, wind events, and the El Niño Southern Oscillation Index (ENSO). Common carp recruitment was synchronous up to 756 km but asynchronous at larger scales. Winter and summer GDD, precipitation, and wind were also synchronous among locations up to 1640 km apart. Summer GDD appeared most influential to common carp recruitment but varied across latitudes, with negative effects identified at low latitudes and positive effects identified at higher latitudes. Our results provide new insights into the spatial scale of recruitment synchrony of a non-native freshwater fish and indicate that climatic conditions at local to regional scales likely influence recruitment patterns.
ISSN:0706-652X
1205-7533
DOI:10.1139/cjfas-2016-0254