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17 pages, 2458 KB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Environmental Impacts on Skin Microbiomes of Sympatric High Arctic Salmonids

by Erin F. Hamilton, Collin L. Juurakko, Katja Engel, Josh D. Neufeld, John M. Casselman, Charles W. Greer and Virginia K. Walker

Fishes 2023, 8(4), 214; https://doi.org/10.3390/fishes8040214 - 18 Apr 2023

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2916

Abstract

In the region of King William Island, Nunavut, in the Canadian high Arctic, populations of salmonids including Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus), cisco (Coregonus autumnalis and C. sardinella) as well as lake whitefish (C. clupeaformis) are diadromous, overwintering in freshwater and transitioning to saline waters following ice melt. Since these fish were sampled at the same time and from the same traditional fishing sites, comparison of their skin structures, as revealed by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, has allowed an assessment of influences on wild fish bacterial communities. Arctic char skin microbiota underwent turnover in different seasonal habitats, but these striking differences in dispersion and diversity metrics, as well as prominent taxa involving primarily Proteobacteria and Firmicutes, were less apparent in the sympatric salmonids. Not only do these results refute the hypothesis that skin communities, for the most part, reflect water microbiota, but they also indicate that differential recruitment of bacteria is influenced by the host genome and physiology. In comparison to the well-adapted Arctic char, lake whitefish at the northern edge of their range may be particularly vulnerable, and we suggest the use of skin microbiomes as a supplemental tool to monitor a sustainable Indigenous salmonid harvest during this period of change in the high Arctic. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biomonitoring and Conservation of Freshwater & Marine Fishes)

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14 pages, 6524 KB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Movements of Non-Migrant European Eels in an Urbanised Channel Linking a Mediterranean Lagoon to the Sea

by Raphaël Lagarde, Jason Peyre, Elsa Amilhat, François Bourrin, François Prellwitz, Gaël Simon and Elisabeth Faliex

Water 2021, 13(6), 839; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13060839 - 19 Mar 2021

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3795

Abstract

Transitional ecosystems and, particularly, Mediterranean lagoons represent important habitats for the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) population. In these habitats many anthropogenic pressures can disturb eel movements and, in turn, negatively affect the population. Despite the importance of movements during the non-migrant growing stage in eels, this topic is understudied in Mediterranean lagoons. We thus aim to describe the diel and seasonal phenology and the effect of environmental drivers on non-migrant eel movements. Videos obtained from an Adaptive Resolution Imaging Sonar (ARIS) acoustic camera that continuously recorded from October 2018 to April 2020 were processed to evaluate the daily number of eels swimming toward the lagoon. More than 60% of the 7207 eels observed were females with a size >45 cm. Movements were year-round and predominantly during the night. A Boosted Regression Tree analysis demonstrated that, among the 10 environmental drivers studied, flow velocity, water temperature, discharge of the main tributary, wind velocity and atmospheric pressure, had the strongest influence on eel movement activity. Non-migrant eel movements should be better incorporated into lagoon management plans through actions such as limiting dredging activities from 18:00 to midnight, especially when the water flows toward the lagoon and when the water temperature is higher than 12 °C. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management in Fresh and Transitional Waters)

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12 pages, 1928 KB

Open AccessArticle

Transposable Elements and Teleost Migratory Behaviour

by Elisa Carotti, Federica Carducci, Adriana Canapa, Marco Barucca, Samuele Greco, Marco Gerdol and Maria Assunta Biscotti

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(2), 602; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020602 - 9 Jan 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3754

Abstract

Transposable elements (TEs) represent a considerable fraction of eukaryotic genomes, thereby contributing to genome size, chromosomal rearrangements, and to the generation of new coding genes or regulatory elements. An increasing number of works have reported a link between the genomic abundance of TEs and the adaptation to specific environmental conditions. Diadromy represents a fascinating feature of fish, protagonists of migratory routes between marine and freshwater for reproduction. In this work, we investigated the genomes of 24 fish species, including 15 teleosts with a migratory behaviour. The expected higher relative abundance of DNA transposons in ray-finned fish compared with the other fish groups was not confirmed by the analysis of the dataset considered. The relative contribution of different TE types in migratory ray-finned species did not show clear differences between oceanodromous and potamodromous fish. On the contrary, a remarkable relationship between migratory behaviour and the quantitative difference reported for short interspersed nuclear (retro)elements (SINEs) emerged from the comparison between anadromous and catadromous species, independently from their phylogenetic position. This aspect is likely due to the substantial environmental changes faced by diadromous species during their migratory routes. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Transposable Elements II)

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7 pages, 2365 KB

Open AccessShort Note

Mussel Spat Ropes Assist Redfin Bully Gobiomorphus huttoni Passage through Experimental Culverts with Velocity Barriers

by Jonathan D. Tonkin, Liam A.H. Wright and Bruno O. David

Water 2012, 4(3), 683-689; https://doi.org/10.3390/w4030683 - 14 Sep 2012

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 8168

Abstract

The application of mussel spat rope for enabling the passage of redfin bully Gobiomorphus huttoni through culverts, which create velocity barriers, was trialled in the laboratory. No fish were able to access the un-roped control pipes whereas 52% successfully negotiated the pipes in the rope treatments. The success of fish ascending treatment pipes suggests mussel spat rope may be effective for enabling the passage of this and other similar fish species through otherwise impassable culverts with velocity barriers. Full article

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