NANFA Forum Off-Line

I don't know why, but as of now, 7:30 p.m. CST on New Year's Eve, the NANFA Forum is down. Hopefully it will return soon.

And On To Sipsey Fork

I heard back from Jera at the Bankhead National Forest today. She's extended my permission to catch fish in Sipsey Fork inside Bankhead until the end of January. Going out next Tuesday still looks good, with little rain between now and then, and predictions of a sunny day with high in the mid-forties. We'll be looking to collect about 20 silverstripe shiners, hopefully that will be relatively easy as long as water levels aren't high. The latter is the bigger problem than temperature, since years ago we tried to collect at this site in February and were driven out by high water. But now we have better gear and more experience, and are maybe tougher and smarter(!), so I'm hoping for the best.

Much of the afternoon was spent on editing the black darter paper. I'm almost embarassed at how long and poorly organized the Methods section was. It's better now, but that was about 1.5 hours to do a serious re-write. The other big challenge is to summarize all of the (many) reported ANOVA tests in to one summary table; that should boil down the Results section in a big way. The good news is that they liked our ANOVA numbers and interpretations, but in current form it's sprawling. All of this is what happens when you try to edit down even an excellent Master's thesis in traditional format into a much tighter journal format. I feel like I'm in a remedial Scientific Writing course (but at least I'm passing).

The Holidays In Slow Motion

I still haven't heard back from the editor at NeuroReport, which doesn't surprise me this time of year. Things have been slow with me too. But I did spend much of the day today doing more re-ordering of my office. I've broken down my old computer, with CRT, and I'm going with a laptop instead. Along with moving out my old, old printer that only works as a scanner(!), my desk is hugely cleared off which is a good thing. With the laptop as my primary computer, everything is portable; all I need is a wifi system at home for easy access.

This all makes it possible for me to finally work on revising the black darter paper for Southeastern Naturalist. I spent two hours on it today, and it's not as bad as I originally thought from looking at reviewer comments. The editor and one anonymous reviewer were both rightfully taken aback by the manuscript's length, which I knew was a problem. But their suggestions are on the money for pruning it back. The one factual misstatement, in the second paragraph of the manuscript, was in saying that the black darter is "probably" in Mississippi when, if fact, Ross states in his book Inland Fishes of Mississippi that the species is in the NE corner of the state. I based my range statement on Etnier's Tennessee book from 1993, so I'm happy to correct it. That was an easy fix... other edits will be more involved.

The "Sexual Dimorphism In The Teleost Central Nervous System..." Paper Is Submitted

I submitted the shiner brains paper to the journal NeuroReport an hour ago. It's already evening in London, where the editorial office is, so I don't expect to hear back from them until next week. Hopefully they'll put it out on review and we'll see what happens. It's much different from what we submitted last June, looking at breeeding season brain volume vs. standard length for each of three species and also at the amount of n-methyl d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the brains of individuals of the same three species, all broken down by sex. Only the sexually dimorphic scarlet shiner shows statistically significant male/females differences for both measures.

As a follow-up, hopefully we can do the same thing for non-breeding season individuals of all three species. This means, of course, collecting fresh individuals from our two collecting sites. I'd like to go to Sipsey Fork to collect silverstripe shiners the first week of January (water levels permitting), and we'll be going back to Estill Fork on January 16 anyway for driftnetting. (Andrew, let me know if you're up for this about January 5.)

I'm Pushing The NMDAR In Shiners Paper

I've spent much of my time for the last 5 days working on our manuscript, "Sexual Dimorphism in the Teleost Central Nervous System Varies With Spawning Strategy" by Stallsmith et al. It's just about ready to submit to the journal NeuroReport, with our comparisons of brain features between males and females in scarlet (L. fasciolaris), silverstripe (N. stilbius) and telescope (N. telescopus) shiners. I'll let the Abstract explain it broadly:

ABSTRACT
Lythrurus fasciolaris is a sexually dimorphic fish with peak dimorphism during breeding season, as indicated by size and nuptial coloration, while Notropis stilbius and N. telescopus are not. This study asked if phenotypic sexual dimorphism is reflected in the brain as indicated by relative size of the brain, and also differences in expression of NMDA receptors involved in learning and memory. Reproductive condition male L. fasciolaris have significantly larger brain to standard length ratios than do females, but male N. stilbius and N. telescopus do not. During breeding season L. fasciolaris males have significantly higher expression of NMDA receptors than do females while in the non-sexually dimorphic species, Notropis stilbius and N. telescopus, males and female expression levels are not significantly different indicating that NMDA receptors undergo pronounced sex-specific regulation only in the strongly sexually dimorphic species.

Report On Stream Survey For Spring Pygmy Sunfish And Tuscumbia Darters

Here's a somewhat edited version of my submitted report on last week's stream survey. For the moment, if you really want to know where to find the slender campeloma, you'll have to ask me or Jeff Garner.

"Report of an Aquatic Species Survey of Sewer Crossing Sites on Moore Branch and Oakland Spring Branch, Limestone County, Alabama, for Elassoma alabamae and Etheostoma tuscumbia"

Area of survey
The Moore Branch site is 400 meters to the west of Segers Road (County Road 119) approximately 1.5 km south of Powell Road (County Road 18). The Oakland Spring Branch site is 400 meters north of where the stream crosses Browns Ferry Road (County Road 95), approximately 1.5 km to the west of Burgreen Gin on Burgreen Road (County Road 87).

Purpose of this survey
The primary targets of this survey were Elassoma alabamae, the spring pygmy sunfish, and Etheostoma tuscumbia, the tuscumbia darter. Both of these vulnerable and increasingly rare species are found to the south of the survey sites in the Beaverdam Creek system. The sites were also surveyed for evidence of the following aquatic animal species found in Limestone County and listed as federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act:
Slender campeloma (Campeloma decampi)
Slackwater darter (Etheostoma boschungi)

RESULTS
The two stream sites were surveyed on December 10, 2009. Sampling activity was primarily through the use of a seine 3 meters long, 1.3 meters high with a mesh size of 3 mm X 3mm. The seine was either pulled through an open area, or set perpendicular to current in the stream by two people while one person slowly walked downstream “kicking” to drive fish into the net. Sampling efforts began at the downstream end of each area and progressed upstream, with seining efforts made about every 5 meters. A smaller push net was also used at Oakland Spring Branch to sample smaller areas of the stream around such aquatic vegetation as was found as those areas would be more likely to shelter Elassoma alabamae. Neither Elassoma alabamae, nor Ethestoma tuscumbia, nor Etheostoma boschungi was found at either site.
Along with seining, likely-looking stream edges were examined for evidence of the burrowing snail Campeloma decampi (slender Campeloma), most typically found burrowing in soft mud or sands. Neither living snails nor post-mortem shells were found.
Following is a list of aquatic species found in each stream:
Moore Branch
Campostoma oligolepis, stoneroller
Luxilus chrysocephalus, striped shiner
Pimephales notatus, bluntnose minnow
Rhinichthys atratulus, blacknose dace
Semotilus atromaculatus, creek chub
Lepomis macrochirus, bluegill sunfish
Lepomis megalotis, longear sunfish
Etheostoma duryi, black darter
Eurycea cirrigera, southern two-lined salamander

Oakland Spring Branch
Campostoma oligolepis, stoneroller
Hemitremia flammea, flame chub
Luxilus chrysocephalus, striped shiner
Pimephales notatus, bluntnose minnow
Rhinichthys atratulus, blacknose dace
Semotilus atromaculatus, creek chub
Etheostoma kennicotti, stripetail darter

At both sites, the thousand feet of stream surveyed did not contain suitable habitat for Etheostoma tuscumbia or especially Elassoma alabamae. Both streams are important as tributaries to the lower Beaverdam Creek system that contains the necessary and vulnerable habitat to support the two species. The surveyed sites showed evidence of channel straightening and other modifications of the original streambed and riparian area. Moore Branch has no areas of the preferred emergent aquatic vegetation, and is characterized by flowing water over gravel in a deep-cut streambed with no immediate spring connection.
Oakland Spring Branch, tributary to Moore Branch, appeared to be more likely to host both species in the lower 700 feet sampled but little aquatic vegetation was found. The upper 300 feet or so at Oakland Spring Branch runs close to a large cultivated field and carries a large erosional sediment load. The only fish species found in this upper area was Semotilus atromaculatus, an extremely tolerant species able to live in degraded habitats where other species can not.

CONCLUSION
The one species of conservation interest found in Oakland Spring Branch is Hemitremia flammea (flame chub). This species is disappearing across much of its range in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia, and is believed to be extirpated in Kentucky. It currently has no federal protection, and has not been nominated for such protection. But many biologists who are familiar with this species recommend that it be recognized as a species of Special Concern at the state level (especially Boschung and Mayden, 2004; Stallsmith, 2009). This status carries no legal weight but indicates that the species should be better studied before its population decreases to the point where it could be considered for more stringent protection such as listing under the Endangered Species Act.
The federally Endangered snail Campeloma decampi (slender campeloma) was not found in the relatively degraded survey sites in the upper Beaverdam Creek basin. But living individuals of this species have recently been found in the main channel of Beaverdam Creek, from the southern end of Beaverdam Lake to the Beaverdam Boardwalk south of I-565 (Jeff Garner, personal communication). This is also the area where Elassoma alabamae is found, with the greatest density of both species in a section of this streambed (Michael Sandel, personal communication). A comprehensive survey for Campeloma decampi within the Beaverdam Creek system should be conducted prior to any further disturbance of this area.

LITERATURE CITED:
Boschung, H.T. and R.L. Mayden. 2004. Fishes of Alabama. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Garner, Jeff. Malacologist, Alabama Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries, Florence, AL.

Sandel, Michael. University of Alabama, Department of Biological Sciences, Tuscaloosa, AL.

Stallsmith, B.W. 2009. “Distributional Status Of The Flame Chub, Hemitremia flammea, in Alabama, USA.” Endangered Species Research, on review.

Today's The New Moon

And that means we're going to Estill Fork this morning for drift netting. We may not catch any fish since I think we're caught up for the moment with various projects. As I'm sure you know, today is also Beethoven's birthday.

I hope to post parts of my survey report in the next day or two.

Quick Stream Survey Summary

We went out on Thursday to survey 2000 stream feet at two sites in Limestone County, Alabama, for rare spring pygmy sunfish and tuscumbia darters. Both of these sites are north of any historic sites for the spring pygmy. We didn't find either species at either of these sites, which turned out to be all wrong in terms of habitat conditions. But both of these streams feed into lower Beaverdam Creek which is the habitat for both species. I'll post more once I submit the final version of my report to the company that requested our survey. One last tease, we found flame chubs at one of the sites, along with stripetail darters which were totally unexpected.

I took this photo just after we arrived at Oakland Spring Branch, on the edge of a soy field. It was both cold and wet. Left to right, Kevin, Andrew and Brittany.

The New, Improved Abstract For The Brain Sexual Dimorphism Article

I had late afternoon brainwaves today and yesterday after wrapping up grading and some errands. The inspiration hit me to rework the article on our work with brain size and NMDA receptors in three species of shiner. It's now more streamlined, with only two figures, and better focused in general. Below is the new title and abstract. It's been one of those weird writing events when after worrying about the writing for a month or two(!), two afternoon sessions are enough to make all the moves on the manuscript (most, anyway).

"Sexual Dimorphism in the Teleost Central Nervous System Varies With Spawning Strategy", by Stallsmith et al.

ABSTRACT
Lythrurus fasciolaris is a sexually dimorphic fish with peak dimorphism during breeding season, as indicated by size, nuptial coloration and significant increase in relative gonadal mass; while Notropis stilbius and N. telescopus are not. This study asked if phenotypic sexual dimorphism is reflected in the brain as indicated by relative size of the brain, and also differences in expression of NMDA receptors involved in learning and memory. Reproductive condition male L. fasciolaris have a significantly larger average brain volume to standard length ratio than do females, but male N. stilbius and N. telescopus do not. During breeding season L. fasciolaris males have significantly higher average expression of NMDA receptors than do females while in the non-sexually dimorphic species, N. stilbius and N. telescopus, males and females are not significantly different indicating that NMDA receptors undergo pronounced sex-specific regulation in a strongly sexually dimorphic species.

Not Much, Really

As final exams peak today, I'm treading water for anything interesting for the moment. We go out first thing Thursday to survey streams for spring pygmy sunfish and tuscumbia darters. The weather forecast is for sunny but a high of 44 deg. F which will be brisk. Wearing waders and walking around definitely conserves heat, I just hope we don't get cold hands. But the status of this stream system is a good scientific question with serious ramifications for the continued existence of a species. Will anyone invoke some sort of "god squad" to decide the fate of this species, or just carry on as usual as a species disappears? It's a serious ethical question, unless of course you don't think it is.

We'll Go Out Looking For Spring Pygmy Sunfish & Tuscumbia Darters

I have a paid survey job that we can hopefully do next week. The small area of available habitat for the spring pygmy sunfish is being squeezed by expanding suburban development from the city of Huntsville, AL. This is really just a unique spring system in the eastern edge of Limestone County, now the only home to the spring pygmys. They need just the right water flow conditions of limestone spring runs meandering through a swampy area. This area has been protected, more or less, but now sewer lines are being put in to support expanded suburbs. I've agreed to do a site survey at two creek sites where the sewer pipe is slated to cross the stream. By request of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, we'll be looking for both spring pygmys and tuscumbia darters, another endemic vulnerable species. At each site we'll net and generally look around to see if those species are present. Also present might be flame chubs and (much less likely) slackwater darters, the latter a Federally Threatened species already.

A petition has been filed with the USFWS by the Center for Biological Diversity in Oregon, and Michael Sandel in Tuscaloosa, to list the spring pygmy as a federally protected species. Hopefully they won't have to sue to have the petition acted on.