Recipient Organization
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY
208 MUELLER LABORATORY
UNIVERSITY PARK,PA 16802
Performing Department
Ecosystem Science & Management
Non Technical Summary
The problems identified on a world-wide scale also impact our local aquatic flora and fauna. The distribution of the fishes within Pennsylvania was initially related to plate tectonics, physiography, and geomorphology of the region. Fenneman (1938) recognized the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, and Appalachian Plateau as distinct provinces of the region. It is generally conceded that the Appalachian Mountains evolved in the Taconic (Ordovician), Acadian (Devonian) and Appalachian (primarily Permian) orgogenies. Contemporary thinking (e.g., Judson 1976, Cook et al. 1980) strongly suggests that these three major peaks of mountain building were a direct consequence of the actions of plate tectonics that characterized the Paleozoic from Ordovician through Permian times. Relative to the formation of these barriers to fish dispersal, Schmidt (1986) hypothesized that five disjunct refugia contributed to the fauna of the northern Appalachian region. The two refugia that would have most influenced the fauna within the region that is now Pennsylvania are the Mississippi Valley and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. The Mississippi River basin is hypothesized to be the primary center of origin and dispersal of fishes east of the Rocky Mountains; thus, the high diversity of fishes found in these drainages relative to the Atlantic Coastal Plain is expected. The overflow caused by melting glaciers probably would have been important in the dispersal of fishes from more northern regions into the Susquehanna, Delaware, and Potomac basins of the Atlantic Slope, and caused stream reversal and dispersal of the Great Lakes fauna into the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, and vice versa. There is no doubt that these events determined the original distribution of fishes with the Commonwealth. More recently, however, anthropogenic influences have greatly altered the current arrangement of fish distribution patterns within Pennsylvania. Such influences include the direct transport of fishes through intentional or accidental introductions and changes in water quality caused by direct input of toxins into our waterways or by landscape alterations, which in turn change the physico-chemical parameters of run-off.The quantification of biodiversity, for the most part, hinges on the number of species present in a particular system. Thus, the concept of species has long influenced the way in which humans view the diversity of life (Ruffing et al. 2002). The goal to define the species category has provoked more discussions and arguments than perhaps any other topic in comparative or evolutionary biology (Eldridge 1995). Darwin (1859) recognized the difficulty in delimiting species when he noted that many forms considered by competent scientists as varieties are ranked as species by other competent researchers.I recently redescribed the Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) from the type locality on Long Island, New York and designated a neotype, since a holotype was never preserved. My students and I are now working on the systematics of the "Brook Trout" from Pennsylvania and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee and North Carolina. Our preliminary conclusions indicate that Brook Trout do not occur in PA, but are in fact other species in Salvelinus.
Animal Health Component
20%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
60%
Applied
20%
Developmental
20%
Goals / Objectives
1) continue to describe species of freshwater fishes;2) use of CT scanner to refine our analysis of morphology of both African and North American fishes and to compare phenotypic plasticity in introduced and native fishes;3) to develop recover plan for endangered fishes and monitor introduced fishes;4) expand the range of the Chesapeake Logperch which is endemic to the Susquehanna River drainage in Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Project Methods
1. Continue to describe species of freshwater fishes. As part of our continuing research in Ohio River basin, we have recently discovered a new species of darter related to Percina caprodes.We have been studying the cichlid fishes of Lake Malawi for the past two decades. The cichlids of Lake Malawi certainly provide a tremendous forum for the discussion of species concepts, given the explosive radiation and diversification within this system. Cichlid fishes represent an outstanding case of explosive evolution and offer extraordinary opportunities to investigate evolutionary processes that have led to such diversity. Rapid speciation within these fishes (Stauffer and McKaye 2001), however, has resulted in a paucity of characters for discriminating among species. Our experiences in Africa and Central America demonstrate that in situ behavioral studies, integrated with morphological and genetic analysis of taxonomic units are vital to determining the specific status and relationships among taxonomic units (Stauffer et al. 1995). Determination of the specific status of local taxonomic units is critical for the development of programs both to conserve and to utilize these fishes for food, tourism, disease control, and scientific investigations.2. In the 1980s, morphometrics experienced a major revolution through the invention of coordinate-based methods, the discovery of the statistical theory of shape. This new morphometric approach has been termed geometric morphometrics as it preserves the geometry of the landmark configurations throughout the analysis and thus permits to represent statistical results as actual shapes or forms (Mitteroecker and Gunz, 2009). In morphometrics, the term shape is used to characterize the geometric properties of an object that are independent of the object's overall size, position, and orientation, whereas the form of an object comprises both its shape and size. Geometric morphometrics is based on landmark coordinates. Shape and shape change are intrinsic to survival and eventually to evolution. In the course of evolution, the cichlid head has adapted to many vital functions. To begin a study of cranial shape variation, we will acquire 3D HRCT scans and collect the 3D coordinates of landmark locations from 3D reconstructions based on bone tissue threshold.3. Develop recovery plans for endangered species and monitor introduced fishes. Objectives of the restoration of the Chesapeake Logperch include: 1) culture 2500 fry for reintroduction, 2) identify suitable habitat in the Susquehanna River Watershed (BCW) to reintroduce these species, 3) mark the cultured fry with unique tags, 4) reintroduce cultured minnows into selected areas, and 5) monitor populations for growth, maintenance, and reproduction; 5) move wild fishes from areas where they are abundant to areas where they have been extirpated; 6) compare the success of reintroduction of cultured versus wild fishes in establishing reproducing populations.