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R.A. Bergstedt

Publications and source records attributed to R.A. Bergstedt.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

Olfactory-mediated stream-finding behavior of migratory adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)

Stream-finding behavior of adult sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus), an anadromous fish that relies on pheromones to locate spawning streams, was documented in the vicinity of an important spawning river in the Great Lakes. Untreated and anosmic migrating sea lampreys were implanted with acoustic transmitters and then released outside the Ocqueoc River. Lampreys swam only at night and then actively. When outside of the river plume, lampreys pursued relatively straight bearings parallel to the shoreline while making frequent vertical excursions. In contrast, when within the plume, lampreys made large turns and exhibited a weak bias towards the river mouth, which one-third of them entered. The behavior of anosmic lampreys resembled that of untreated lampreys outside of the plume, except they pursued a more northerly compass bearing. To locate streams, sea lampreys appear to employ a three-phase odor-mediated strategy that involves an initial search along shorelines while casting vertically, followed by river-water-induced turning that brings them close to the river's mouth, which they then enter using rheotaxis. This novel strategy differs from that of salmonids and appears to offer this poor swimmer adaptive flexibility and suggests ways that pheromonal odors might be used to manage this invasive species.

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences

Use of chemosensory cues as repellents for sea lamprey: Potential directions for population management

Sea lamprey invaded the Great Lakes in the early 20th century and caused an abrupt decline in the population densities of several native fish species. The integrated management of this invasive species is composed of chemical (lampricide) applications, low-head barrier dams, adult trapping and sterile male release. Recently, there has been an increased emphasis on the development of control methods alternative to lampricide applications. We propose as an alternative-control method the use of chemosensory cues as repellents for sea lamprey population management. Based on the available evidence at this time, we suggest that injury-released chemical alarm cues show promise as repellents for sea lamprey and further research should be directed at determining whether sea lamprey show an avoidance response to these types of chemosensory cues. From a management perspective, these chemosensory cues could be used to restrict sea lamprey access to spawning grounds. Repellents could also be used together with attractants like sex pheromones to manipulate sea lamprey behavior, similar to the "push-pull" strategies utilized with insect pests. ?? 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Journal of Great Lakes Research

Compensatory mechanisms in Great Lakes sea lamprey populations: implications for alternative control strategies

Compensatory mechanisms are demographic processes that tend to increase population growth rates at lower population density. These processes will tend to reduce the effectiveness of actions that use controls on reproductive success to suppress sea lamprey ( Petromyzon marinus ), an economically important pest in the Great Lakes. Historical evidence for compensatory mechanisms in sea lamprey populations was reviewed, and revealed: (1) strong evidence for shifts in sex ratios as sea lamprey abundance was reduced in the early years of the control program; (2) weak and equivocal evidence for increased growth rates of sea lamprey cohorts re-colonizing streams following a lampricide treatment; and (3) suggestions of other compensatory processes, such as earlier ages at metamorphosis, but with little empirical evidence. Larval size distribution data for cohorts in the first and second years following a lampricide treatment (26 pairs of cohorts in 20 streams) was analyzed and did not indicate a consistent pattern of more rapid growth of the first colonizing cohort (only 11 of 33 cases). To test for compensation between spawning and age-1 in sea lamprey populations, data were analyzed for 49 stream-years for which spawning female abundance was known and age-1 abundance was estimated in the following year. A fit of these data to a Ricker stock-recruitment function showed evidence for compensation, measured as reduced survival to age 1 at higher abundance of spawning females. More obvious, however, was a large amount of density-independent variation in survival, which tends to mask evidence for compensatory survival. The results were applied to a simple model that simulates sea lamprey populations and their control in a hypothetical lake. Control strategies that targeted reproductive success performed far less well than comparable strategies that targeted larval populations, because density-independent recruitment variation leads to occasional strong year classes even when spawner abundance is reduced to low levels through alternative control. It is concluded that further study of recruitment variation in lamprey populations is critical to rationalizing alternative controls that target reproductive success, and that recruitment variation needs to be incorporated into models used to evaluate sea lamprey control options.

Journal of Great Lakes Research

Relation of concentration and exposure time to the efficacy of niclosamide against larval sea lampreys ( Petromyzon marinus )

The efficacy of 2’, 5-dichloro-4’-nitrosalicylanilide (niclosamide) at various concentrations and exposure times was tested against free-swimming larval sea lampreys ( Petromyzon marinus ) at 12°C and 17°C in Lake Huron water. Concentrations of niclosamide in test solutions ranged from 0.46 to 4.7 mg/L with pH 7.8 to 8.3, total alkalinity 78 to 88 mg/L as CaCO 3 , and total hardness 95 to 105 mg/L as CaCO 3 . In each test, six groups of larvae were exposed to a single concentration of niclosamide for times ranging from 30 s to 30 min. Exposure time was treated as the dose and, for each concentration tested, the exposure time necessary to kill 50 and 99.9% of larvae (ET50 and ET99.9) was determined. Linear regressions of the log 10 -transformed ET50 and ET99.9 on the log 10 -transformed niclosamide concentrations were significant at both temperatures with r 2 ranging from 0.94 to 0.98. The predicted ET50 ranged from 58 sec to 21.7 min and the ET99.9 ranged from 2.5 to 43.5 min across the concentrations and temperatures tested. Niclosamide required a significantly longer time to kill larvae at 12°C than at 17°C.

Journal of Great Lakes Research

Predation by sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) on lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) in southern Lake Ontario, 1982-1992

Dead lake trout ( Salvelinus namaycush ) killed by sea lamprey (P etromyzon marinus ) were collected from the bottom of Lake Ontario using bottom trawls. The number of dead lake trout per hectare could be predicted from the number of type A-1 sea lamprey marks observed on live fish in September gillnet surveys ( r 2 = 0.60, P < 0.01) but not from the sum of marks of types A-1, A-2, and A-3 combined. Sea lamprey selectively attacked and killed the largest lake trout. The lengths and ages of live fish with A-1 marks increased as the population of longer, older lake trout in the lake increased, and the length distributions of fish killed by sea lamprey were not different ( P > 0.05) from those of live fish with A-1 marks in 5 of 6 years where comparisons could be made. Compared with Lake Superior strain lake trout, Seneca Lake strain fish were only 0.41 times as likely to be attacked by sea lamprey and were less likely to die from an attack (both differences P < 0.05). Conservative estimates of the numbers of lake trout killed by sea lamprey in southern Lake Ontario from October to mid-November ranged from 17,000 in 1988 to 121,000 in 1984.

New York, Ontario

Mass-marking of otoliths of lake trout sac fry by temperature manipulation

The otoliths of 676,000 sac fry of lake trout Salvelinus namaycush in 1986, and of 1,100,000 in 1987, were marked by daily manipulation of water temperature. The fish were stocked into Lake Huron in the spring. Otolith marks consisted of groups of daily growth rings accentuated into recognizable patterns by steadily raising and lowering the temperature about IOA?C (from a base of 1-4A?C) over 14h. In 1987, groups of marked and control fish were held for 6 months. The otoliths were removed from samples of the fish, embedded in epoxy, thin-sectioned by grinding in the sagittal plane, etched, and viewed by using a combination of a compound microscope (400-1000x) and a video enhancement system. One or more readable otolith sections were obtained from 39 of a sample of 40 fish. Three independent readers examined 41 otoliths for marks and correctly classified the otoliths, with accuracies of 85, 98,and 100%, as being from marked or unmarked fish. The exact number of rings in a recognizable pattern sometimes differed from the number of temperature cycles to which the fish were exposed. Counts of daily rings within groups of six rings varied less than counts within groups of three rings.

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