Identification of Blood Plasma Factors for Assessment of Stress and Health in Pallid Sturgeon

Bozeman Fish Technology Center - Recovery efforts for pallid sturgeon require the capture of wild broodstock for propagation in conservation hatcheries.  Capture, transportation, handling, collection of tissue for assessment of spawning readiness, and spawning are stressful events and as a result of these activities, poor egg quality and spawning success and mortality of wild broodstock has occurred.  The overall goal has been to identify and determine which blood parameters are the best physiological indicators that may be used to assess stress load and health of pallid sturgeon.  Drs. Alan Allert and Molly Webb have monitored over 22 blood plasma parameters in wild-caught pallid sturgeon adults, hatchery-reared subadult pallid sturgeon maintained at the Bozeman Fish Technology Center and subjected to a severe confinement stress, and pallid and shovelnose young-of year undergoing an iridovirus outbreak.  They have determined that cortisol is the primary glucocorticoid secreted in response to a stressor in pallid sturgeon and have identified 10 blood plasma parameters involved in organ function, acid base balance, energy balance, anion-cation changes, and pH changes that appear to be the best indicators of stress and overall health of pallid sturgeon. 

Collaborators:  Pompeu Fabra University; Oregon State University; Oregon Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute; Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks; Miles City State Fish Hatchery; Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery; USGS-Science Support Program; USGS-Columbia Environmental Research Center

New Research Program: Aquatic Nuisance Species and Aquatic Ecosystem Health

The Bozeman Fish Technology Center has launched an Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Aquatic Nuisance Species Program to provide a field, research and technical assistance component to the US Fish and Wildlife Service in addressing issues of national aquatic significance related to fish hatchery products and operations.  The Aquatic Ecosystem Health (AEH) Program provides technical assistance for water quality, conservation, monitoring, and effluent, contaminants, fish health and immunology, pathogen escapement and transfer, and other hatchery management issues.  This program includes technical assistance to hatchery management and staff as well as research and technology development.  The Center’s AEH Program is an innovative approach for the Service to promote and maintain aquatic health where National Fish Hatchery facilities impact natural waterways.  The Service can also provide guidance to partners whose industry and management negatively impact waterways.  Managing for good water quality, reducing contaminants, maintaining biodiversity and diverse habitat, and implementing decontamination and preventative protocols is managing for overall aquatic ecosystem health. 

The ANS program compliments existing ANS efforts regionally and nationally in providing state and partnership coordination and grants.  The BFTC is an ideal location for this program as it is a research facility and is located on the frontier of inland west invasion where colonization vectors, pathways and impacts can be evaluated as well as investigating controls and developing monitoring techniques.  The Center’s ANS program offers technical assistance in monitoring, detecting and preventing ANS to US FWS stations and other partners as well as conducting research on pertinent issues. 

The ANS Program has assisted with Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) planning.   HACCP plans describe protocols to stop the spread of Aquatic Nuisance Species. Center efforts have assisted nearly 20 Fisheries field stations in the northwest and mountain-prairie regions to develop HACCP plans.   In recent months, the Center is providing HACCP training and planning assistance to Ecological Services offices in the Mountain-Prairie region.

Genetics Assessment of Susquehanna River Shad

Lamar Fish Technology Center - Hatchery propagation and stocking of American shad represent a large component of restoration efforts in the Susquehanna River. In a subsample of the returning adult population at Conowingo Dam in 2003, approximately 26% of the adults were of wild origin, and 74% wer of hatchery origin. The Susquehanna River Anadromous Fish Restoration Committee (SRAFRC) collects shad eggs from two locations on the Susquehanna River, and from the Hudson and Delaware rivers for stocking in the Susquehanna River. Determination of the source of wild origin shad in the Susquehanna that successfully retun as adults (as the marked individuals) and produce offspring that return as adults (unmarked) will aid in restoration efforts through the targetting of those stocks for stocking efforts.  Researchers at Lamar are conducting genetic investigations of the adult shad that returned to the Lapidum area and to Conowingo Dam in the spring 2005 to identify the source of wild-origin adult shad. Comparisons of estimates of genetic diversity between shad of hatchery origin may identify which introduced stocks were successful in establishing reproducing populations. Additionally, characterizing shad utilizing different sections of river may adid in the understanding of life history characteritics and behavior.

Age-structured population model for horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay helps to assess egg availability for shorebirds.

Lamar Fish Technology Center - The objective of this computer simulation study was to create an age-structured population model for horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) in the Delaware Bay region using best available estimates of age-specific mortality and recent harvest levels. Density dependence was incorporated using a spatial model relating egg mortality with abundance of spawning females. Combinations of annual female harvest (0, 50, 100, and 200 thousand), timing of female harvest (before or after spawning), and three levels of density dependent egg mortality were simulated. The probability of the population increasing was high (>80%) with low and medium egg mortality and harvest less than 200 thousand females per year. Under the high egg mortality case, the probability of the population increasing was <50% regardless of harvest. Harvest occurring after spawning increased the probability of population growth. The number of eggs available to shorebirds was highest when egg mortality was lowest and female abundance was at its highest levels. Although harvest and egg mortality influenced population growth and food availability to shorebirds, sensitivity and elasticity analysis showed that early-life stage mortality, age 0 mortality in particular, was the most important parameter for population growth.  Modeling results suggest that future research and management actions should be directed at the early juvenile stages of horseshoe crabs in the Delaware Bay.  Collaborators on this study included USGS - Leetown Science Center.

An example of simulated spawning female horseshoe crab population growth under the conditions of harvest occuring before the spawn, harvest of 50,000 females per year, and medium egg mortality.