Seasonal and diel drift of fish were studied in the fifth order of the Illinois River, Arkansas during 1980–1982 to assess the inclination of the various species (ca. 60) in the community (and size groups within species) to drift and to determine their diel and seasonal periodicities of drift. Eighteen taxa were identified from the drift. Channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and flathead catfish (Pylodictus olivaris) alevins represented 57% and 12% of the drift respectively. Slender madtom catfish (Noturus exilis) were abundant in the riffle studied but none were collected in the drift. Larval fish drifted from late April through late August with a peak on 23–24 June when an estimated 37,203 drifted through the study area. A distinct diel pattern was observed with peaks at 2300 and 0300 hours. Drifting larvae were more abundant near the surface and margins with catfish alevins on the deep side and cyprinids, sunfishes, and all prolarvae on the shallow side of the stream. Post-larval development ...

Propensity to Drift Downstream among Various Species of Fish

Both abiotic and biotic factors affected larval fish in Baron Fork, Oklahoma. Nighttime drift rates were very high (up to 31 larvae/m3) during normal flow. Censuses indicated that daytime abundances of larvae occupying pools were influenced significantly by the presence of juvenile and adult smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui). Minnow larvae were less abundant in pools occupied by juvenile smallmouth bass and more abundant in pools with adult smallmouth bass. Experimental manipulation of adult bass supported the hypothesis that their presence benefits the larvae of other species, but pool type influenced this response. Differences between the effects of adult bass on the accumulation of larvae in main channel pools compared with side pools appeared to reflect the influence of drift. The benefit that adult bass provided the larvae of other species probably involved their impacts on juvenile bass and other small fishes, which may be the most significant predators of larval fish. The pattern of co-occurr...

Interaction of Abiotic and Biotic Factors Influences Larval Fish Survival in an Oklahoma Stream

Understanding the complex interactions among environment, genotype and ontogeny in determining organismal phenotypes is cental to many biological disciplines. The Eurycea multiplicata complex, endemic to the Interior Highlands (Ozark Plateau and Ouachita Mountains) of eastern North America, comprises a diverse radiation of paedomorphic surface-dwelling (E. tynerensis), metamorphic surface-dwelling (E. multiplicata multiplicata and E. m. griseogaster) and metamorphic subterranean (Typhlotriton spelaeus) hemidactyliine plethodontid salamanders. Portions of two mitochondrial genes, cytochrome-b and NADH dehydrogenase-4, totalling 1818 base pairs (bp) were sequenced for 70 ingroup individuals plus numerous outgroup taxa, to examine the biogeography and relationships among these morphologically disparate species. Results show the E. multiplicata complex to be monophyletic, with its two most divergent clades corresponding to geography, not morphology or life history. Transforming surface-dwelling populations from the Ouachitas (E. m. multiplicata) are sister to the Ozark taxa, including paedomorphic surface-dwelling (E. tynerensis), subterranean (T. spelaeus) and transforming surface-dwelling salamanders assigned to the ‘subspecies’E. m. griseogaster. Among Ozark taxa T. spelaeus (deeply nested within Eurycea) is sister to a clade that includes E. m. griseogaster and E. tynerensis. Current taxonomy suggests that paedomorphic populations (E. tynerensis) from the western Ozarks are distinct from nearby transforming populations (E. m. griseogaster). However, paedomorphic and transforming salamanders do not form reciprocally monophyletic groups and many populations share almost identical haplotypes. Ancestral state reconstruction of life history traits shows that paedomorphosis arose independently from three to nine times. Most populations are either completely paedomorphic or completely transforming. This suggests that local habitat parameters strongly influence life history mode in this complex, either facultatively or by selection for particular genotypes.

Speciation, phylogeography and evolution of life history and morphology in plethodontid salamanders of the Eurycea multiplicata complex.

The Arkansas and the Red—two large, separate river basins—drain the southern Great Plains region of the US south of the Kansas River and north of the Texas–Gulf coastal drainages. Rivers of the region flow through the Southern Plains, Central Prairie, Ozark Highlands, Ouachita Highlands, and Mississippi Embayment “freshwater ecoregions.” The rivers of the region fall into two different groups based on their upland versus lowland characteristics. The group including the Arkansas, Canadian, Red, Washita, and Cimarron rivers represents typical large to medium-size low-gradient prairie main stems with wide, shallow, braided, unstable sand-bed channels, often carrying heavy loads of large wood snags washed in by floods. Late-summer drying of streams in the region is a function of both evapotranspiration and lowered rainfall. Extreme rainfall events result in annual or more frequent bankfull spates and streambed scouring in many of the smaller tributaries to the main rivers. Clearing and snagging rivers for boat passage, contamination by salt water from oil production, and interbasin water transfers have altered the rivers over the years.

7 – southern plains rivers

Nest-building, territory defense, and spawning of Campostoma anomalum pullum (Agassiz) occur from mid-April to early June at water temperatures of 58 to 75?F in the vicinity of Ithaca, New York. In shallow, gravel bottomed areas with slow to moderate currents males carry out most digging, stone carrying, and agonistic activities. Digging and stone carrying result in the formation of cleared areas often containing pits that are utilized in spawning. Males move from pit to pit, defending each area while they work in it. Where nest sites are limited and

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1440909.pdf

Reproductive Behavior of the Stoneroller Minnow, Campostoma anomalum pullum

With the cooperation of the Army Engineers, Tulsa District and the Oklahoma Game and Fish Department, a qualitative preimpoundment survey of the fishes of the Illinois River, in Oklahoma, was undertaken by the writers and a crew of nine students from the Department of Zoology of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical Collcge m August 1946. The construction of a dam at Tenkillers Ferry was in its iiiitial phases at that time. The expedition was greatly aided by the services of Dr. H. I. Featherly of the Oklahoma A. and M. College Botany Department, and Mr. Cecil Haight of the Army Engineers. The State Game and Fish Department through its Warden, Mr. Jeff Kendall, and its Superintendent of Fisheries, Mr. A. D. Aldrich, made available the services of Mr. Ed Jarrell, Superintendent of the State Fish Hatchery at Tahlequah, who gave much needed advice concerning the river while he was transporting our gear from station to station. The hearty cooperationl of Colonel C. FH. Chorpening and Mr. L. G. Duck of the Army Engineers is greatly appreciated. Drs. A. I. Ortenburger, A. P. Blair, W. F. Blair, and Mrs. F. A. Blair generously gave permission to use materials and data collected by them. The writers are indebted to Dr. Carl L. Hubbs of Scripps Institution of Oceanography for nomenclatural aid and to Drs. R. M. Bailey and Robert R. Miller of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology for the identificationi of some specimens and for seniding pertinent data from their Museum files.

The Fishes of the Illinois River in Oklahoma and Arkansas

On April 8, 1939, six specimens (presumedly adult) of an apparently new neotenic plethodontid salamander were discovered in Tyner Creek near Proctor, Oklahoma. The first specimens were discovered accidentally, during a search for ammocoetes, under cold swift-running water several inches deep, just above the bridge on Highway U. S. 62 one-half mile east of town. By loosening the deep coarse sand and gravel of the creek bed, the salamanders were routed and then caught downstream in a 4-foot "common sense" seine. These specimens were all fixed iti 10 percent formalin. On April 29 thirteen more "adults" were obtained at the same place-12 of these were kept alive in the laboratory. A thorough search along the banks of the creek failed to yield adults of any salamander on these first two trips.

George A. Moore

Papers

The Fishes of the Illinois River in Oklahoma and Arkansas

A New Plethodontid from Eastern Oklahoma