Influences of environmental and chemical parameters on the spatial growth patterns of four riverine cyprinid fishes

Knowledge and Management of Aquatic Ecosystems (2015) 416, 12 c C. Liu et al., published by EDP Sciences, 2015  DOI: 10.1051/kmae/2015008 Knowledge & Management of Aquatic Ecosystems www.kmae-journal.org Journal fully supported by Onema Influences of environmental and chemical parameters on the spatial growth patterns of four riverine cyprinid fishes C. Liu(1),(2) , Y. Chen(1) , J.R. Britton(3), Received March 23, 2015 Revised April 14, 2015 Accepted April 16, 2015 ABSTRACT Key-words: roach, chub, disturbance, somatic growth, environmental change Understanding intraspecific variability in fish somatic growth rates is important as growth is a key life history trait that plays a fundamental role in many biological and ecological processes. Here, the influence of environmental and chemical parameters was tested on intraspecific variability in growth rates of the cyprinid fishes roach Rutilus rutilus, chub Squalius cephalus and dace Leuciscus leuciscus across 13 rivers in England, and also compared with those for barbel Barbus barbus from the same rivers. Outputs indicated that growth rate responses to the parameters were species-specific, with more significant effects generally detected on juvenile growth than lifetime growth. For R. rutilus and S. cephalus, latitude (as a surrogate of temperature) was the most significant predictor of their growth rates, with growth rates decreasing as latitude increased. Contrary to prediction, aspects of degraded water quality accelerated the growth rates of these fishes, except in B. barbus, although concentrations of nitrogenous compounds were below toxicity thresholds. This emphasizes the ability of populations of these cyprinid fishes to tolerate some environmental disturbances and, in entirety, suggests that the intraspecific variability in the growth rates of these fishes is significantly influenced by abiotic parameters and their association with levels of anthropogenic disturbance. RÉSUMÉ Influences de paramètres environnementaux et chimiques sur les modèles de croissance spatialisés de quatre cyprinidés fluviaux Mots-clés : gardon, chevesne, perturbation, Comprendre la variabilité intraspécifique des taux de croissance somatique de poissons est important car la croissance est un trait d’histoire de vie clé qui joue un rôle fondamental dans de nombreux processus biologiques et écologiques. Ici, l’influence des paramètres environnementaux et chimiques a été testée sur la variabilité intraspécifique des taux de croissance des cyprinidés, gardon Rutilus rutilus, chevesne Squalius cephalus et vandoise Leuciscus leuciscus de 13 rivières (1) Laboratory of Biological Invasion and Adaptive Evolution, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, P.R. China (2) Graduate University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China (3) Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Fern Barrow, Poole, Dorset, UK  Corresponding author: This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC-BY-ND (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material. C. Liu et al.: Knowl. Manag. Aquat. Ecosyst. (2015) 416, 12 croissance en Angleterre, mais aussi sur ceux du barbeau Barbus barbus des mêmes rivières. Les résultats indiquent que les réponses des taux de croissance à ces paramètres somatique, sont spécifiques de l’espèce, avec des effets plus importants généralement détecchangements environnementaux tés sur la croissance des juvéniles que ceux détectés sur la croissance sur toute la vie. Pour R. rutilus et S. cephalus, la latitude (comme substitut de la température) est le facteur prédictif le plus important de leur taux de croissance, avec des taux de croissance diminuant à mesure que la latitude augmente. Contrairement à la prédiction, l’aspect dégradé de la qualité de l’eau accélère les taux de croissance de ces poissons, sauf pour B. barbus, alors que les concentrations des composés azotés sont inférieures aux seuils de toxicité. Cela souligne la capacité des populations de ces cyprinidés à tolérer certaines perturbations de l’environnement et, en tout cas, suggère que la variabilité intraspécifique dans les taux de croissance de ces poissons est fortement influencée par des paramètres abiotiques et leur association avec le niveau de perturbation anthropique. INTRODUCTION Identifying the factors affecting fish growth rates is important ecologically due to the importance of growth as a key life history trait and its role in, for example, production and juvenile recruitment (Brandt et al., 1992; Berkeley et al., 2004). In the freshwater phase of stream-dwelling salmonid fishes, biotic factors are important determinants of individual growth rates due to, for example, competition for territory and food (Keeley, 2001; Richard et al., 2015). These density-dependent effects are usually detected via impaired growth (Richard et al., 2015). For riverine populations of cyprinid fish populations in temperate rivers, density-dependent processes tend to be less evident, due in part to the influence of climatic factors during the early-life phases of cohorts that regulates their recruitment, often resulting in low survivorship and, subsequently, relatively low competition for food resources (Nunn et al., 2003, 2007). In these fish communities, environmental factors (e.g. river flow, temperature) and changes in water chemistry (e.g. nutrient enrichment arising from anthropogenic disturbances) tend to be more important influences on fish ecology generally and growth specifically (Lappalainen et al., 2008; Britton et al., 2013). Spatially, the influence of latitude on water temperature is recognised as a major determinant of fish growth rates in the northern hemisphere (Blanck and Lamouroux, 2007; Lappalainen et al., 2008; Carmona-Catot et al., 2011), with a general pattern of reduced growth with increased latitude due to lower temperatures and shorter growth seasons ((Blanck and Lamouroux 2007; Lappalainen et al., 2008; Carmona-Catot et al., 2011). Nevertheless, anthropogenic activities that modify physical habitats and water quality can also strongly influence growth rates due to the shifts in geomorphic, hydrologic and chemical characteristics of rivers that result in significant changes in the structure and function of fish communities (Welcomme et al., 2006; Beardsley and Britton, 2012; Britton et al., 2013). Moreover, considerable interspecific differences are often evident (Magalhães et al., 2003; Šimková et al., 2006) with, for example, species such as roach Rutilus rutilus tending to grow faster and dominate lowland river fish communities receiving high nutrient loads (Willemsen, 1980 (...truncated)