Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center
Aquatic Ecosystem Health
The role of the Aquatic Ecosystem Health program is to conduct research to protect, mitigate, and enhance the health of aquatic ecosystems. Research conducted within the Program is focused on the following 3 areas of study, (1) controlling aquatic invasive species, (2) fisheries restoration, and (3) understanding the impacts of contaminants on aquatic ecosystems.
Browse Aquatic Ecosystem Health science related to:
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is being evaluated as a chemical control for invasive Asian carps. Recent work involves investigations on the effectiveness of CO2 as a tool to limit range expansion by blocking upstream migrations (behavioral deterrent) and manage existing populations (lethal control). Data generated from these studies are intended to inform resource managers...
Registration of Carbon Dioxide–Carp
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Registration of new fishery chemicals is critical to facilitate field research and give resource managers the ability to incorporate chemical controls as part of their Integrated Pest...
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is being evaluated as a chemical control for invasive Asian carps. Recent work involves investigations on the effectiveness of CO2 as a tool to limit range expansion by blocking upstream migrations (behavioral deterrent) and manage existing populations (lethal control). Data generated from these studies are intended to inform resource managers...
Carbon Dioxide for General Aquatic Invasive Species Control
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is being evaluated as a new fishery chemical for general aquatic invasive species control. Most research has focused on its effectiveness as a behavioral...
Effects of Carbon Dioxide on Non-Target Organisms
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Chemical controls are a vital component of many effective Integrated Pest Management plans. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is being evaluated as a new fishery chemical for invasive Asian...
Carbon Dioxide as an Asian Carp Lethal Control
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Management agencies often rely on commercial harvest for Asian carp population control. Piscicides, or fish toxicants, are an alternative method that could supplement Integrated Pest...
Engineering and Testing of Carbon Dioxide Infusion Systems
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Management agencies have identified key pinch-points where there is a need to block Asian carp passage. Recent studies have shown that carbon dioxide (CO2) can be an effective...
Carbon Dioxide as an Asian Carp Behavioral Deterrent
Asian Carp Control: Carbon Dioxide
Introduction of Asian carps into public waters of the United States has resulted in a large effort to limit dispersal beyond the Mississippi River watershed. Navigational structures positioned...
Developing RNA Interference to Control Zebra Mussels
We aim to develop a control tool for eliminating zebra mussels that exploits natural gene regulation mechanisms (RNA-induced gene silencing; RNAi) to be specific to zebra mussels without non-target effects. In addition to the nuisance they pose, Pimentel et al. estimated that zebra mussels cost the U.S. economy over $1 billion annually. Zebra mussels are among the International Union...
BOR environmental DNA sampling for invasive mussels at USGS gages
As part of an ongoing project funded by the Bureau of Reclamation and lead by the Idaho Water Sciences Center (IDWSC) and Northern Rocky Mountain Research Center (NOROCK), the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center (UMESC) will analyze environmental DNA samples collected at gage stations directly downstream of multiple reservoirs throughout the Columbia River Basin. The goal of this...
Avoidance behavior of cold-, cool-, and warmwater fish exposed to Zequanox in a two-choice preference chamber
Zebra (Dreissenia polymorpha, Pallas 1771) and quagga (D. bugensis, Andrusov 1897) mussels, collectively referred to as dreissenid mussels, are invasive bivalves native to the Ponto-Caspian region of Eurasia (Stepien et al. 2013; Benson 2018a). High fecundity and a free-swimming planktonic life stage allow for easy and rapid dispersal of dreissenid mussels (Mackie 1991;...
Assessment of newly developed acoustic stimuli for manipulating movement of bigheaded carps
Bigheaded carps, like other cyprinids, have specialized structures known as Weberian ossicles that increase their hearing range and sensitivity. Recent results from controlled laboratory studies have indicated that playback of a recording of an outboard boat motor was effective at altering silver and bighead carp behavior.
Forensic Markers of Lampricide Toxicity & Mortality in Non-Target Fishes
The pesticides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and niclosamide selectively target larval sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) because they have a much lower capacity to detoxify these lampricides by forming glucuronide conjugates compared to typical non-target fishes. However, if lampricide uptake overwhelms a fish's detoxification capacity, non-target mortality can result. Non-target...