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High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region

In estuaries, salinity is believed to limit the colonization of brackish water habitats by freshwater species. Blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, recognized as a freshwater species, is an invasive species in tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. Salinity tolerance of this species, though likely to deter...

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Autores principales: Nepal, Vaskar, Fabrizio, Mary C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31689331
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224770
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author Nepal, Vaskar
Fabrizio, Mary C.
author_facet Nepal, Vaskar
Fabrizio, Mary C.
author_sort Nepal, Vaskar
collection PubMed
description In estuaries, salinity is believed to limit the colonization of brackish water habitats by freshwater species. Blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, recognized as a freshwater species, is an invasive species in tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. Salinity tolerance of this species, though likely to determine its potential range expansion and dispersal in estuarine habitats, is not well-known. To address this issue, we subjected blue catfish to a short-term salinity tolerance experiment and found that this species tolerates salinities higher than most freshwater fishes and that larger blue catfish tolerate elevated salinities for longer periods compared with smaller individuals. Our results are supported by spatially extensive, long-term fisheries surveys in the Chesapeake Bay region, which revealed a gradual (1975–2017) down-estuary range expansion of blue catfish from tidal freshwater areas to habitats exceeding 10 psu [practical salinity units] and that large blue catfish (> 200 mm fork length) occur in salinities greater than 10 psu in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Habitat suitability predictions based on our laboratory results indicate that blue catfish can use brackish habitats to colonize new river systems, particularly during wet months when salinity decreases throughout the tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay.
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spelling pubmed-68307722019-11-14 High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region Nepal, Vaskar Fabrizio, Mary C. PLoS One Research Article In estuaries, salinity is believed to limit the colonization of brackish water habitats by freshwater species. Blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, recognized as a freshwater species, is an invasive species in tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. Salinity tolerance of this species, though likely to determine its potential range expansion and dispersal in estuarine habitats, is not well-known. To address this issue, we subjected blue catfish to a short-term salinity tolerance experiment and found that this species tolerates salinities higher than most freshwater fishes and that larger blue catfish tolerate elevated salinities for longer periods compared with smaller individuals. Our results are supported by spatially extensive, long-term fisheries surveys in the Chesapeake Bay region, which revealed a gradual (1975–2017) down-estuary range expansion of blue catfish from tidal freshwater areas to habitats exceeding 10 psu [practical salinity units] and that large blue catfish (> 200 mm fork length) occur in salinities greater than 10 psu in Chesapeake Bay tributaries. Habitat suitability predictions based on our laboratory results indicate that blue catfish can use brackish habitats to colonize new river systems, particularly during wet months when salinity decreases throughout the tidal rivers of the Chesapeake Bay. Public Library of Science 2019-11-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6830772/ /pubmed/31689331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224770 Text en © 2019 Nepal, Fabrizio http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Nepal, Vaskar
Fabrizio, Mary C.
High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title_full High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title_fullStr High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title_full_unstemmed High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title_short High salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the Chesapeake Bay region
title_sort high salinity tolerance of invasive blue catfish suggests potential for further range expansion in the chesapeake bay region
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6830772/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31689331
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0224770
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