Prioritizing Fish Reintroductions in Lower Abrams Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park Based on Ecological Benefit and Source Population Integrity.

Description

Field methods include the capture of fishes using backpack electrofishing using the same methodologies employed by Great Smoky Mountains National Park fish biologists. In particular, alternating current electricity generated by a backpack electrofisher will be used to capture fishes in three GSMNP basins: (1) Deep Creek, (2) Pigeon River, and (3) Little River. At each site where fishes are collected, the lower caudal fin lobe will be surgically removed from up to three targeted species: (1) Banded Sculpin (Cottus carolinae), (2) Mottled Sculpin (Cottus bairdi), and (3) Greenside Darter (Etheostoma blennoides). Tissue samples will be preserved in 1 ml microcenterfuge tubes containing DNA shield (a liquid designed to reduced DNA degradation during storage). Tissue samples will be transported to the research laboratory of Dr. Joshuah Perkin at Tennessee Technological University, digested, and DNA extracted before 96-well plates containing sampled are shipped for genotyping by sequencing at the Cornell University Institute of Biotechnology. Field methods will be employed to minimize mortality caused by electrofishing and tissue sample collection. Previous research has shown lower caudal fin lobe fin clips result in minimal mortality and fin ray regeneration will eventually proceed. All point data will be protected as sensitive data according to an existing data management plan between Dr. Joshuah Perkin and GSMNP staff (i.e., Matt Kulp and Kendra Straub).

Resources

Name Format Description Link
10 Metadata file explaining each data set and how they relate to each other. https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/603595?Reference=2254021
53 Fish reintroduction sites https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/602929?Reference=2254021
53 This file represents sites that we first visited to capture our target fishes and take a small cutting off of their caudal fin to be taken back to the lab and used for genetic analyses. The fishes themselves were released immediately after the fin clip was taken. No fish were released in Lower Abrams Creek until 2017 and this event was documented in the "AbramsCreekFishTranslocation_TTU_FishReintroductionSites_2017" file. We did not collect fin clips in 2017 so that's why this file is only for 2016. We revisited these same sites in 2017 to conduct snorkel surveys to verify populations were robust enough to be harvest to provide source stock for translocation (see file "AbramsCreekFishTranslocation_TTU_SnorkelSurveyData_2017"). https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/603594?Reference=2254021
53 Summary data report https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/602931?Reference=2254021
57 https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/602932?Reference=2254021
53 Field site information https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/602927?Reference=2254021

Tags

  • origin-external
  • etheostoma-blennioides
  • appalachian-highlands-network
  • mottled-sculpin
  • studyid-grsm-01282
  • grsm
  • southeast-region
  • ecological-framework-biological-integrity-focal-species-or-communities-freshwater-communities
  • aphn
  • cottus-bairdii
  • great-smoky-mountains-national-park
  • cottus-carolinae
  • banded-sculpin
  • ecological-framework-biological-integrity-focal-species-or-communities-fishes
  • ser
  • greenside-darter

Topics

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