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11/4/15, 12:43 PMHow We Humans Change Plant and Animal Communities in our Rivers and Lakes | Opinicon Natural History

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HOW WE HUMANS CHANGE PLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES INOUR RIVERS AND LAKES

Post by Art Goldsmith.

Unless otherwise credited, all photos are taken by Art Goldsmith.

There is little in life more energizing than being amongst great young minds exploring,studying and testing some of the more pressing questions of today’s world. Such was myopportunity when Queen’s University biology professors Stephen Lougheed and YuxiangWang invited me to be with them as they led the Canadian version of the following courseat the Queen’s University Biological Station.

Effects of Human Development on Aquatic Environments and Biodiversity in Canadaand China Field Course 2015

Aided by research associate Mark Szenteczki, Queen’s grad students Mingzhi Qu andWenxi Feng, Lougheed and Wang provide Chinese and Canadian undergraduate biologyand environmental science students with an opportunity for intensive learning in the field. This learning is mixed with a joyful and exhausting itinerary through some of our country’slarge and heavily populated aquatic systems. Learning continues into the evenings withseminars and lectures by course leaders, other biologists and ecologists, and by thestudents themselves, working in teams.

Partnering with China’s Tongji University, Queen’s University has developed the Sino–Canada Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development, with the Biological Stationbeing the Canadian portion of the Centre.

Although it predates establishment of the Centre, the course, which began in 2005,reflects the Centre’s spirit and its goals. The course is given in summers alternatingyearly between China and Canada.

While I experienced only several days of the two-week course at the Biological Station,thanks to material provided by professors Lougheed and Wang, Teaching AssistantSzenteczki and the students, the following includes personal observations, as well asevents outside those days when I was present. I have divided my observations intoseveral chapters. In no way is this information comprehensive. Rather, my intent is to



Commemorative plaque recognizing theSino-Canadian Centre, and the QUBSYangtze Environmental Specimen Bank sisterstation relationship.

Cow Island Trail sign at the Opinicon Campus of theQueen’s University Biological Station.

provide you, dear reader, with an overview thatskims the surface of the wealth of detailedknowledge packed into this very richly composedcourse.

Course Day 1

The field course provides a rich diversity ofexperience. On Day 1 at QUBS, the studentsenjoyed learning about Eastern Ontario naturalhistory and avian diversity. They ended the daywith a nocturnal field trip around the Station wherethey experienced owls, frogs and the numerousinsect species which emerge after dark. This blogisn’t intended to give a full annotated itinerary ofthe course, but rather provide some flavours andsnippets of course experiences and content.

First up, a hike at the Station on the Cow Island Marsh Trail.

Any aquatic ecology course has to considerthe most productive biological systems—wetlands.

Classification of wetlands is, itself, aninteresting and diverse field of study. For thepurpose of this blog, we will focus on fourclasses: marshes (fresh and saltwater, andthose in between); fens; bogs; and swamps. Wetland definitions are tenuous and thesecommon names differ from place to place. Much like common bird or plant names, theterms change.

If you wish a more studied and rigorous wetland classification system, I suggest a goodtextbook, Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation, Second Edition, (CambridgeUniversity Press, Cambridge, UK, 2010), by Dr. Paul Keddy, who also happens to live in

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http://www.cambridge.org/zw/academic/subjects/life-sciences/ecology-and-conservation/wetland-ecology-principles-and-conservation-2nd-edition



Common Cattails, Typha latifolia

Eastern Ontario.

Another helpful reference is the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Water Summary onWetland Resources.

Marshes

Marshes occur in and along ponds, lakes and rivers; in fact, they occur in and along manyaquatic environments. Defined by rich natural nutrient sources, herbaceous emergentvegetation and a neutral pH, marshes are highly ecologically productive places with adiversity of plant and animal life. Of course, they are usually wet! That is, the soils ofmarshes are usually saturated and overlain by water. There are tidal and non-tidalmarshes. Marine marshes are a particular favourite of mine. More about that later.

The Cow Island Marsh is an excellent example. Like so many local marshes in EasternOntario, this one is dominated by Common Cattails, Typha latifolia, seen below.

Look closely, though. Increasingly, I havenoticed another similar species, Narrow-leaved Cattails, Typha angustifolia, becomingmore common and even dominant in somemarshes.

On July 29, 2015, Instructor Dale Kristensenof Queen’s University led a walk at Cow IslandMarsh that focused on his theme: Plantdiversity, identification & importance.

Thanks to the members of team “Scrambled-egg slime mold,” Fei Jin (Fudan University),Zixiang Li (Beijing Normal University), SarahMinnes (Memorial University) and Natalie

Wong (University of Toronto), for their write-up on this event. Thanks go out to MarkSzenteczki as well for the two photos showing Dale leading the students at Cow IslandMarsh.

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https://water.usgs.gov/nwsum/WSP2425/definitions.html



Queen’s Instructor Dale Kristensen leading a field practicum at Cow Island Marsh. Photosby Mark Szenteczki

Some of the plants and scenes observed at this marsh.

Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata

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Marsh Bellflower

Marsh Bellflower stretched on boardwalk.

Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, which is not as familiar as its field growing cousin,Common Milkweed. It is, though, a favourite also of many butterflies.

I had not noticed the Marsh Bellflower, Campanulaaparinoides, before. Dr. Kristensen identified itimmediately as a common local marsh inhabitant. It issometimes overlooked because of its diminutive sizeand vine growth habit that often causes the majorityof the long narrow leaves to be hidden by other plants

To the right are the stem and leaves of the same plantstretched across the boardwalk to enablephotography.

Note that the plant was not harmed during thisprocess!

Many odonates (dragonflies and damselflies) inhabitthe marsh

in midsummer.

One common dragonfly is the Twelve-spottedSkimmer, Libellula pulchella (photo below).

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At the entrance to the boardwalk, in July, you may see a most symmetrical flower, theButtonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis, a wetland-loving member of the Madder family.

Buttonbush

Invasive species, a subject of a talk given by James Sinclair at QUBS during the China–Canada course, are apparent in the marsh. Look for another posting featuring Sinclair’spresentation. Though the Purple Loose-strife (Lythrum salicaria) is now controlled, the

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European Frog-bit

Flowering Rush

plant below, the European Frog-bit,Hydrocharis morsus-ranae, is invading mostof our marshes.

About 23 years ago, the Ontario Ministry ofNatural Resources and Forestry (OMNRF), inpartnership with the Ontario Federation ofAnglers and Hunters (OFAH), established anInvading Species Awareness Program, whereyou can learn more about this species andhow to control it, as well as the growingnumber of species invading Ontario.

The lovely, and invasive, Flowering Rush,Butomus umbellatus, Westmeath ProvincialPark, Ontario.

Human effects on all wetlands have reducedthese important ecosystems bothqualitatively and quantitatively. This photopermits us a more sanguine view, perhapsechoing a previous time when the marsh andits human inhabitants lived moreharmoniously. The marsh is in theforeground, Cow Island on the upper left andLake Opinicon beyond.

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http://www.invadingspecies.com/invaders/plants-aquatic/european-frog-bit/



Marsh – Lake Opinicon and Cow Island

Fens

The course focuses on freshwater systems. The Queen’s University Biological Stationincludes properties in the Frontenac Axis, a band of the Canadian Shield that extendsfrom the Algonquin Highlands across the St. Lawrence River into New York State, wherethe band widens to form the Adirondacks. Swamps, bogs, marshes and fens are a featureof the rocky forested landscape. Locally, swamps and marshes are well represented. Oneof the best fens in the area is the White Lake Fen, near Arnprior, Ontario.

Fens receive groundwater, and, therefore, are more nutrient rich and biodiverse than bogswhich receive only rainwater. Both are characterized by both herbaceous and woodywater-loving plants, including many orchid and carnivorous plant species.

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White Lake Fen

Swamps

Swamps are characterized by woodyvegetation. Cedar swamps abound in EasternOntario. Eastern White Cedars, Thujaoccidentalis, tend to be some of the oldesttrees in our country. Drainage has left a greatdeal of our cedar swamps with a loweredwater table, which has caused a drop indiversity and no cedar regeneration. Cedarsare very adaptable, though, and upland

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Cedar grove – Stittsvillepopulations are increasing as they invadeabandoned farmlands. This points out aproblem with the way we organize our conservation efforts around endangered speciesinstead of endangered ecosystems. The cedar is definitely not endangered. Perhaps thecedar swamp is threatened?

Pictured on the right is a cedar grove in Stittsville, Ontario. Previously, this grove, now aprotected area, had standing water most of the year.

Bogs

Bogs and fens are indeed a northern phenomenon. In Eastern Ontario, well known largebogs exist and even have moose populations (Alfred Bog and Mer Bleue). Just for fun,and because your blogger recently completed a lifelong dream trip to a very southernbog, here is a photo from the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (southern Georgia,USA). Bogs’ waters are only replenished by rain. This makes them nutrient poor, acidic,wet environments characterized by peat moss. The southern climate produces somebigger trees, and some more diversity than one would get in our local bogs. Still,Okefenokee is NOT a swamp.

Okefenokee bog

Course Day 2

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Gray Ratsnake encountered at QUBS.

Each team wrote their own blog about each day of the course. For the Day 2 content,thanks go out to team ‘Dryad’s saddle’ members, Derek James Newton (Queen’s), QinLanxue (Tongji), Xing Kangnan (BNU) and Lyu Wenyang (d’Overbroecks).

Before breakfast, the group hiked, working upan excellent appetite, looking for some of themany species of birds resident in themarshes, forests, lakes and shoressurrounding QUBS. Along the way, theylearned a little about the Grey Rat Snake,Pantherophis spiloides, our largest snake inOntario and endemic to the Frontenac Axis. This threatened reptile is often seen movingthrough the property.

Indeed, this blogger encountered the snake below on the same road the students hiked(right).

The students heard a Pine Warbler, Setophaga pinus; many black-capped chickadees,Poecile atricapillus; and they heard the sharp “chick-chick” calls from a DownyWoodpecker, Dryobates pubescens. As they left the forest on their way to the marsh,they observed Common Yellowthroat warblers, Setophaga dominica; and Blue Jays,Cyanocitta cristata. Walking along the marsh boardwalk, the students heard the“prehistoric caw” (note: the blogger thinks of this loud abrupt call as a “groink”) of theGreat Blue Heron, Ardea herodias. They saw a Caspian tern, Hydroprogne caspia, fly overas it fished Lake Opinicon. The first true wetland resident species encountered was theSwamp Sparrow, Melospiza georgiana, which popped up in the bullrushes and cattails. Other species usually heard or seen around the lake are the Common Loon, Gavia immer;and the Osprey, Pandion haliaetus.

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Family of Common Loons.



Mingzhi giving GPS lecture

Osprey flying overhead.

During the afternoon, the group learned about Global Positioning Systems (GPS) andapplications to environmental science research. Over the last 20 years, GPS andGeographic Information Systems, in combination with remote sensing, have becomefundamental tools for learning about, conducting research on and presenting clearvisualizations of environmental topics.

Qu Mingzhi provided comprehensiveknowledge on GPS methods and applications.

Following a walk to an upland marsh, dottedwith willow and goldenrod, the students weretreated to another presentation by a Queen’sgrad student Wenxi Feng, who is working onthe applications of monitoring for eDNA. Wenxi also presented his research at theQUBS Open House in June, which your blogger attended. The idea is simple; the

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Wenxi demonstrating peristaltic pumpfor sampling water for eDNA.

application is much more complex. Wetland organisms, such as fish, turtles and frogs, forexample, through normal life processes, exude mitochondrial DNA. Water samples maybe analyzed for this DNA indicating presence or absence, density, and much moreinformation about organisms in the ecosystem, without the need to capture or harvest theorganisms.

Wenxi Feng showed course participants eDNA methodsand applications for environmental research. This is adeveloping and exciting field, which has great potentialfor streamlining and improving environmentalmonitoring.

The day ended with participants watching one of myfavourite motion pictures, The Big Year. ThreeAmerican “birders” compete to see the most birdspecies in a single year. Of course they are all men,who go to great lengths to find that rare bird.

With that, this first chapter of the 2015 China–CanadaField Course ends. In the next chapter, we will followthe participants as they develop their own seminars andI will give details about several of the student seminars.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to Janice Tripp for her expert editing assistance.

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11/4/15, 1:03 PMSino-Canada Eco Dreams or How We Humans Change Plant and Animal Communities in our Rivers and Lakes. | Opinicon Natural History

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SINO-CANADA ECO DREAMS OR HOW WE HUMANS CHANGEPLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES IN OUR RIVERS AND LAKES.

Post by Art Goldsmith

(unless otherwise credited, photos by Art Goldsmith)

Effects of Human Development on Aquatic Environments and Biodiversity in Canada andChina Field Course 2015

Chapter 2 – Student Seminars

Invasive Species Seminar

Environmental and Ecological Impacts of Damsby Team Scrambled-Egg Slime Mold

Seeing this topic connects me to relevant strong and vivid personal memories. SinceWorld War 2, so much of human enterprise has been about dams, principally those built tosatisfy our gluttonous appetite for cheap energy. In the 1970s, I worked with ProfessorJohn Spence of McGill University, who took on the role as Science Advisor for the FirstNations’ court battle against Hydro Quebec’s massive James Bay development (1972).Those dams are now built, and the environmental and social consequences well known.

Read about it here.

Therefore, it was with more than a little interest that I entered into this discussion withthese four students.

http://www.waskaganish.ca/the-james-bay-project

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Sarah Minnes (sitting left), Zixing Li (sitting right), Fei Jin (standing left), Natalie Wang (standing right)

Canada has a large share of hydro development mega-projects, including James Bay(Quebec), Churchill Falls (Newfoundland and Labrador), St. Lawrence–Great Lakes(Ontario), Churchill–Nelson (Manitoba), plus so many more megawatts of capacity onmost of our streams in the populated south of the country. When you add water supply,navigation and irrigation dams, finding natural rapids and falls in southern Canada is nowa challenge! Some species, like the Rapids Clubtail dragonfly (Gomphus quadricolor),which is dependent on southern rapids for habitat, are now rare and endangered.Hydrological and stream hydraulics changes cause an array of undesirable ecologicaleffects.

Although no southern projects have recently caused major social disruption in Canada,the same is not true for China. In Canada, only the Eisenhower Dam project, whichcreated Lake St. Lawrence, comes to mind. In that 1950s case, three villages wereflooded. Most of the homes and businesses were moved to a larger planned villagenearby (Ingleside, Ontario) before flooding. Historical buildings wound up at a newinterpretive historical village (Upper Canada Village, Morrisburg, Ontario).

In China, when we hear that 1.3 million people lost their homes to the Three GorgesProject, the scale boggles the mind. Already threatened ecosystems and their species arenow contending with new development pressures. Just opened in 2003, this dam acrossthe Yangtze River is associated with the largest capacity power station on our planet. Thereservoir is a 1,000-square kilometre lake which reached its “final height” in 2010.

One can only imagine the ecological and socioeconomic consequences. But why do that,when, like our four team members, you may easily read the facts yourself.

Oil Spillsby Team White-winged Scoter (Melanitta deglandi)

http://www.internationalrivers.org/files/attached-files/3gorgesfactsheet_feb2012_web.pdf%20http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/chinas-three-gorges-dam-disaster/



Team Members: Mengxi Wu, Chang Leo, Anyi Tang, Manreet Kaler

Team Members: Chang Leo, Mengxi Wu, Anyi Tang, Manreet Kaler

My time with this group was short. I talked with Chang before the other three teammembers arrived. He started by telling me about the different kinds of oil and oil productswhich are transported and spilled:

1. very light2. light3. medium4. heavy

Of the four types, very light is the most difficult environmentally due to its volatility andhigh toxicity. We all know well the results of offshore drilling infrastructure collapse (BP’sGulf of Mexico drilling platform) and transportation accidents (pipeline breakages andshipping accidents, the Exxon Valdez in Alaska being one of the best known and mostdestructive).

The group also reported on one of the activities on the course blog. On August 3rd, thestudents participated in a fish seining learning exercise. Seining is one of the moststraightforward ways to sample the population of fish along a shoreline. Partners spreadout after extending a net to its full length and attaching it to the appropriate foot. The twopeople at each end then move out, so as to create a pocket with the net. They thenenvelop the fish by moving toward each other, closing off the pocket. Fish are transferredto buckets for identification, counting, and data collection (age, sex, condition, etc.). Thisteam caught 158 fish, 7 species.

Aquaculture in the Modern Eraby Team Black-shouldered Spinyleg (Dromogomphus spinosus)

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Huck Nelson is from PEI and feels a vested interest, like so many young Maritimebiologists, in the burgeoning aquaculture industry. His hopes and concerns were echoedby the Chinese members of this team.

Upon meeting, we immediately entered into an animated discussion about the origins ofaquaculture. The team found reference to British Columbia First Nations’ clam farming asfar back as 5,000 years. Evidence of fresh water fish farming in Egypt would beconcurrent, and carp in china may reach back as far as 4,500 years. So there is a long-term human penchant for stewardship of aquatic animals in addition to terrestrial animals.

At Queen’s, the Bruce Tufts’ lab in Fish Physiology and Fisheries Biology is investigatingthe effects of different applications on aquaculture fish through their fish physiologyexpertise. For example, the team learned that a flow-through system is 200 times lessefficient than a bio-filtered re-circulation system.

In terms of environmental impact, aquaculture is having a variety of undesirableoutcomes; the most concerning being the weakening of wild populations, local pollution(flow-through) and the focusing on mono cultures.

Chinese aquaculture dwarfs our own, as 70% of global aquaculture production is Chinese.Their products do show up in our stores. Asian shrimp production (India, Vietnam,Malaysia, Thailand and China) has become big business, as most of the large volumes ofshrimp now sold to North America come from that region.

Junshu Li, Yutong Liu, Huck Nelson, Xuewei Wang

I learned so much from this and subsequent discussions. For me, that is the big payback.Learning in such an enriched environment is a privilege. Thanks, Xuewei, for the Chineselesson! “Yu” means fish; “tsing” is please; and Beijing has 24 million people, which is

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Chiahsing Hsu

Fan Wu

Will Baigent

more than the population of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec combined.

Each team is named for a common and often seen speciesseen in our aquatic ecosystems. This blog chapter is aboutthe students and their learning. Surely, you miss seeingsome great nature shots, so here is my photo of the Black-shouldered Spinyleg taken at the QUBS dock.

Climate ChangeScenarios, Predicted Impacts on Aquatic Ecosystemsand

Strategies to Mitigate continued Changeby Team Cherry-faced Meadowhawks, Sympetrum internum,

Here are some highlights from this team’s presentation.

In the worst case scenario, global average temperature will increaseby 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100. Ice sheets and glaciers will melt,changing northern climates and causing a significant rise in globalsea levels. Our carbon dioxide levels will be 3 to 4 times pre-industrial levels. They are already at 400 PPM as measured by NOAA(USA’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). How do

we know that temperature will increase this much? Paleoclimatologyprovides the answers, principally from ice core analysis. You can seethe data well presented at NOAA, where a chart shows over the last400,000 years natural CO2 changes and temperature changes. Note

that the highest measured concentrations were about 300 PPMover this very long period of time.

See: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/temperature-change.html

Our lake ecosystems will be affected greatly, as ice cover in the Great

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Xiaofei Feng Lakes drops by 42%, meaning species adapted to ice cover and certaintemperature ranges will be pressured. River ice will be similarly affected,

affecting species diversity, species range and populations. Temperature increases causemore evaporation, increasing salinity and concentrations of other minerals. Oxygen levelswill decrease. Carbon dioxide levels will increase, as CO2 is very soluble in water.

Oceans are also absorbing unprecedented concentrations of CO2, increasing oceanacidity. Sea levels have risen an average of 20 centimetres and may rise an additional 1metre by 2100.

Here, Will tells us about the current effects of climate change. You can read his full list byenlarging the photo by clicking on it.

Many regions in the world will be affected greatly if these changes come to be. The youngpresenters will feel the full brunt of change and are very concerned. Just a few monthsago, China and the USA signed a ground-breaking protocol on climate change. China isspending $50 billion on alternative energy sources, replacing its coal-fired generators at avery fast rate. Two very vulnerable regions in China are the water-scarce North ChinaPlain, and the flood-prone Poyang lake Region.

This graphic shows simply how ice melt will result in a vicious circle of increased heating

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and further loss of ice.

Fan explains some of the ways we may be able to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) had produced a book-sizedreport in 2012 on this topic.

I found it appropriate somehow that the seminar room was made uncomfortable by theheat and humidity outside. The facts about climate change are also uncomfortable.Perhaps you have heard Australia’s Will Flannery talking about climate change. He is ChiefCouncillor of Australia’s Climate Council. It started as a government organization and isnow a non-governmental organization financed by donors. If you do want more than asummary, then go to its website.

If you wish to delve into the details of the science around climate change, you may referto the IPCC web site.

If research interests you, there are great opportunities provided by the Queen’s UniversityBiological Station. Professor Lougheed posted results of his research here in this Blog in2013.

QUBS hosts a long-term climate monitoring project (since 2009) using web cameraswhich monitor forest change. The project started with 12 cameras, 2 in Ontario, 1 at Qubs,and 10 more in the northeastern USA.

Biological Indicator Speciesby Team Dryad’s Saddle

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https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/category/the-facts

http://www.ipcc.ch/

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Giant Swallowtail

Lyu Wen Yang, Derek Newton, Qin Lanxue, Xing Kangnan

There are four kinds of indicator species:

1. Keystone species which create their own ecosystem. OurBeaver (Castor canadensis) comes to mind. One studentsuggested that the Anchovy, an estuarine brackish waterfish common in Chinese waters, is a Chinese candidate.

2. Flagship species which act as a social target forconservation action. The Chinese have the Panda. Wehave the Loon.

3. Sentinel species are the “canary in the coal mine”.Changes to these species tell us there is anenvironmental concern. Southern species spreading intoour latitudes may qualify. Some dragonflies, birds andbutterflies previously unheard of in our region areexamples, such as Easter Amberwing dragonfly (Perithemis teneris), Red-belliedWoodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus), and the Giant Swallowtail butterlfy (Papiliocresphontes).

4. Umbrella species protect other species through their activities. The beaver qualifiesagain. Some African/South American termites also qualify as their giant moundsbring nutrients up from the depths, creating significant areas where other speciesmay thrive. Professor Lougheed has written a paper for this blog on these

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Eastern Amberwing

industrious social insects.

QUBS Seminars

QUBS presents a series of seminars through thesummer. They are most informative andentertaining. This year’s series ended Wednesday,August 26th with Stephen Lougheed’s favouritespecies. Some of his early research projects tookSteve to southern South America, where he learnedto appreciate the Rufous-Collared Sparrow,Zonotrichia capensis. I cannot possibly do justice to Steve’s love of this species in thisblog. His enthusiasm has generated motivation to experience these birds personally. Fornow, I suggest we experience vicariously through the Web: Rufous Collared Sparrow

What follows is another good example of one of these seminars on July 29, 2015.

James Sinclair of Queen’s University:

James’ topic: Strength in Size or Numbers – disentangling thefactors involved in the establishment of non-native species

After dinner in the cafeteria in the Raleigh Robertson BiodiversityCentre, the class, local community members and I convened in theseminar hall in the basement. The hall is set up to accommodateabout 75 people, and it was almost full.

James, in quest of an advanced degree, is studying a most pressingtopic in ecology: invasive species. Since World War 2, the geometric

scale human population increase, combined with ever expanding trade and humanmigration, has afforded many European and Asian species the opportunity to expand intothe Americas (and vice versa!). Most of us have heard about exotic species getting afoothold before this era. The European Starling (Sturnis vulgaris) comes to mind. Thisfeisty, intelligent bird was introduced in the 1890s in New York City by the AmericanAcclimatization Society in its quest to have every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s worksamong us in North America (Starlings are mentioned in Henry IV part 1). These sameenterprising souls also gave us the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).

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Scientific American gave us on article on the Starling’s origin in North America.

James’ invasive species research focuses on one of our most recent cargo shiphitchhikers, the bloody-red mysid (Hemimysis anomala) which is a shrimp-like crustaceanin the Mysida order, native to the Ponto-Caspian region, which has been spreading acrossEurope since the 1950s and is now in our own St. Lawrence River.

The theoretical basis for James’ research is the concept of propagule pressure. Apropagule is a vegetative structure (bud, stem) from a plant from which new plants of thesame species will spread. Therefore it is a way to propagate a species. The Red Mangrove(Rhizophora mangle) has populated the shores of the tropics and subtropics in thisfashion.

Propagule pressure is a measure of the numbers of a species introduced into a regionwhere they are not native. Since this is a composite measure, you have to know how manywere introduced each time, and then how many introductions occurred and over whatarea. As you can see from the slides taken from James’ presentation below, this is statedas “The set of individuals introduced” and “The rate of introductions”.

There is a minimum population required to “launch” a species and each is different. Onlyscientific research which emanates from these theoretical underpinnings will clarify howspecies get started, and this could help us develop more effective strategies forprevention and/or elimination of unwanted species.

As you can see from James’ summary, we have learned a little and have a long way to goto better understand the invasion process.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/call-of-the-reviled/

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James’ research target, the small crustacean which you can see in the slide below, hasalready managed to make the St. Lawrence River its home. The port of Montreal seems tobe its “drop-off” point, so the intrepid James decided to sample the port waters to collectresearch subjects. The best time to collect these light-sensitive crustaceans is at night, ina most seedy part of Montreal’s harbour front. Putting his life on the line, like so manycourageous biologists, James was successful in bringing back sufficient mysids toconduct his experiments in the tanks at Queen’s.

See more about James’ previous research here.

For a full listing of events at the Station, including the Wednesday evening summerseminar series, click here.

In Chapter 3 we will experience another dollop of ecological learning from ProfessorYuxiang Wang, and see some of the field trips which the students experienced. Some ofthe facilities at QUBS will be featured. This will be the final chapter for this field course.Tree Swallows research is the next topic, and look for stories and photos featuringProfessor Emeritus Raleigh Robertson, a long-time Director of QUBS who started TreeSwallow research at Queen’s in the 1970s.

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http://post.queensu.ca/~arnotts/Arnott_Lab_Website/James_Sinclair.html

http://www.queensu.ca/qubs/events-and-outreach

11/4/15, 1:03 PMSino-Canada Eco Dreams or How We Humans Change Plant and Animal Communities in our Rivers and Lakes | Opinicon Natural History

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SINO-CANADA ECO DREAMS OR HOW WE HUMANS CHANGEPLANT AND ANIMAL COMMUNITIES IN OUR RIVERS AND LAKES

Post by Art Goldsmith

(unless otherwise credited, photos by Art Goldsmith)

Field Course 2015: Effects of Human Development on Aquatic Environments andBiodiversity in Canada and China

Chapter 3

World-Wide Fish Physiology and Ecology with Professor Wang AND Views from QUBS

Professor Yuxiang Wang and Fish Facts

On July 30, 2015, Professor Yuxiang Wang presented his lecture on FishBiodiversity/Physiology and Conservation. The slide presentation roamed the globethrough Yuxiang’s eyes, to many of the most diverse and least diverse ecosystems. Hisbreadth and depth of observation, analysis and research kept the students and me inmaximum learning mode.

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The assembled class put down their cell phones and looked their very best for this photo,as they awaited Professor Wang.

The basics and fish facts are required to understand the more detailed knowledgeimparted on us later in the session.

Any excellent introductory course will inform participants about the big picture. The slidesabove and below answer the questions: How many kinds of fish are there and where didthey come from? Fish are indeed vertebrates, animals with backbones, just like us and theother mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians. And there are lots and lots of differentkinds of fish.

Canada’s record on marine and freshwater conservation isn’t the brightest, with less than1% of our oceans under any kind of protection, and that protection is very minimal, asresource industries still take priority even in our marine parks. Australia, for contrast, hasmanaged to protect 38% of its surrounding marine space. When I saw Professor Wang’s

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slide above, it reminded me of the quest to save diversity among species, since diversityis the underpinning of a healthy biosphere.

I recall visiting Biscayne National Park in Florida, USA, where one of the pamphletsproclaimed that there were more fish species in this national marine park than all thevertebrates in Colorado put together. These fish species require a healthy shorelinewetland environment and unpolluted water to persist. Biscayne National Park also has alarge coral reef, another important and stressed element for marine ecology globally.

Evolutionary biology and the origins of fish are subjects that require large volumes toachieve basic understanding. Yiuxang’s slide is a great summary. Note the exclusionsfrom generalities about fish (lamprey and hagfish). The lamprey is of special interest forme, as it was one of the first alien species to reach our Great Lakes and St. LawrenceRiver, threatening an already stressed fishery. Having not focused on this species indecades, Yiuxiang provided a good summary of recent developments regarding attemptsto control the Sea Lamprey, (Petromyzon marinus). Of special note, the lamprey is nativeto the North Atlantic. It is anadromous (more later) and could reach the Gulf of St.Lawrence. The St. Lawrence Seaway project of the1950s provided convenient routesaround rapids and falls, yielding a fresh supply of fish to larval lamprey throughout the St.Lawrence and Great Lakes.

Hagfish and Lampreys

http://www.nps.gov/bisc/learn/nature/index.htm

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The Jawless fish kicked (hard to do without feet!) things off, specifically, Hagfish andLampreys.

The 60 species of Hagfish with rudimentary eyes live in hypoxic habitats (low oxygen)with little light (i.e., they may live in ocean depths). Here are a few more facts aboutHagfish from U.C. Berkeley:

“The adjective which best describes the Myxini is “Lovecraftian”. Hagfish are long,slender and pinkish, and are best known for the large quantities of sticky slime which theyproduce. Hagfish have three accessory hearts, no cerebrum or cerebellum, no jaws orstomach, and will “sneeze” when their nostrils clog with their own slime. They are found incold ocean waters of both hemispheres, scavenging dead and dying fish but also preyingon small invertebrates.

Hagfish are almost blind, but have well developed senses of touch and smell. They havefour pairs of sensing tentacles arranged around their mouth. The mouth lacks jaws, but aHagfish is equipped with two pairs of tooth-like rasps on the top of a tongue-likeprojection. As this tongue is pulled back into the Hagfish’s mouth, the pairs of rasps pinchtogether. This bite is used to tear into the flesh of dead and dying fish which have sunk tothe muddy ocean bottom, or in catching and eating marine invertebrates. By far, the

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largest part of their diet is polychaete worms. Due to their slow metabolism, Hagfish maygo for up to seven months without eating any food.”

Or you can read all of the facts here.

I bet the creature in the “Alien” movies was based on the hagfish and lamprey.

Their “vertebrate” status has also become compromised through adaptive evolution, astheir spinal column is vestigial (no vertebrae) with a partial cranium. There are hagfish inthe Gulf Islands off Vancouver.

Instead of tooth-like Hagfish rasps, the lamprey’s mouth evolved suctorial disc teeth. Thefront end of a lamprey is a sight, looking more like a sanding disk with its circular array ofinward pointing teeth. They do not have the paired fins of most other fish. Indeed, like thehagfish, lampreys attach themselves to a fish, rasping away flesh using the “buzzsaw”mouth. Ouch! They are also anadromous. Like Atlantic Salmon, the adults spawn anddevelop in freshwater and then return to saltwater to live. Larvae live buried in freshwatersystems. Biologists applied their knowledge of the lamprey to control it. Lamprey usechemo-sensing, rather than sight, to manoeuvre through their habitat. Like many insects,they use pheromones to find each other for breeding. Dr. Lee, at Michigan StateUniversity, used this knowledge to attract males, which were then sterilized. Returning tothe environment to mate, these males, of course, produce no offspring, reducing (noteliminating) populations. This application of biology is much more refined, effective,economical and environmentally benign than the first approach to control: chemicals,which kill much more than the target species. The photo above, from Yuxiang’spresentation shows a lamprey attached to and feeding on a Lake Trout. The lowest photoin the slide shows the mouth of the lamprey.

Now that we have dealt with the exceptions, let’s survey the rule—the bony fish.

Cartilaginous and Bony Fish

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/vertebrates/basalfish/myxini.html



The sharks and rays are classified in a separate group (Class Chondrichhyes), which areconsidered to be older than other jawed fish on the evolutionary scale. The Holocephali(Ratfish and cousins) are less well-known deep-water living marine fish.

The bony fishes (Class Osteichthyes), are the rest of the fish species and the mostfamiliar to us. Avid fishers know well the species that respond to our lures and bait. Thereare so many more. One of the more illustrious species, the Coelacanth, a living fossil (Itwas thought to have become extinct 80 million years ago. Oh well, science does learnfrom mistakes!) was featured prominently in my McGill University education in the late1960s.

Read this fascinating story from the Washington Post, and this other article from theAustralia Museum:

The discovery of the Coelacanth has filled in answers to evolutionary questions about theevolution of bony fish and the tetrapods (those of us with legs).

This brief background led Yuxiang into the meat and potatoes (or fish and chips?) portionof his presentation: adaptive and ecological physiology of fish.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/horizon/nov98/fishstory.htm

http://australianmuseum.net.au/coelacanth-latimeria-chalumnae-smith-1939



Teleosts are any member of a large and extremely diverse group of ray-finned fish. Alongwith the chondrosteans and the holosteans, they are one of the three major subdivisionsof the class Actinopterygii, the most advanced of the bony fishes. The teleosts includevirtually all the world’s important sport and commercial fishes, as well as a much largernumber of lesser-known species. When the average person thinks about fish, he/sheusually has a teleost in mind.

The slide above describes how fish have adapted structurally and functionally to theirenvironment. The following terms are important to understanding fish physiology in someof the more extreme habitats studied by Professor Wang. The slide below maps outtypical teleost body parts.

Ammonotelic refers to a fish that excrete nitrogenous waste derived from amino-acidcatabolism in the form of ammonia.

Poikilotherm refers to an organism that cannot regulate its body temperature except bybehavioural means, such as basking or burrowing.

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We hear daily about increasing pressure on our marine and freshwater species. Fish arestaples of the human diet. Therefore, conservation would logically move to the top of ourglobal “to do” list. That isn’t the case, and research like that of Professor Wang’s aidsthose of us with the motivation to act and provides us with the evidence needed forchange. Of course, the Queen’s University Biological Station (QUBS) is a key resource forfreshwater fisheries research. Researchers come from all over North America to study thefish in Lake Opinicon and other surrounding lakes. There are also lakes wholly containedwithin the QUBS properties, making them ideal for whole lake research. Lake Opinicon’sshore houses the QUBS facilities. It is quite a diverse lake. In fact it is a bit more diversethan the list given in the slide below. The two fish pictured in the slide are two other very

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common Centrarchidae, the Blue Gill (Lepomis macrochirus), and Pumpkinseed (Lepomisgibbosus) Sunfish. These two fish are often the first fish a child fisher may catch in ourarea. There is a Centrarchidae missing: the Black Crappie, (Pomoxis nigromaculatus) seenin the photo beside “Fish in Lake Opinicon”. Those are Gregory Bulte’s hands brieflyshowing the fish to his class this summer at QUBS. Look for another edition of this blogfeaturing Grégory Bulté’s Ecology Field Course.

Onward to Professor Wang’s research, which focuses on fish physiology and ecology.Back in my student days, the term physiology caused me to shudder and run. If onlyYuxiang Wang’s approach had been available back then. He made a clear and easy-to-

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understand connection between physiology and ecology. Also, he makes a good case forthis kind of study to better understand fish which are important to the health and wellbeing of local people. I especially appreciate the non-laboratory approaches that Wangtakes. He gets to know and to study his fish on site in some of the more interesting placeson Earth.

Who wouldn’t call Amazon waters “amazing”? Some of Professor Wang’s work is done atthe confluence of two main Amazon tributaries— the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro— atManaus, Brazil. Professor Wang is telling us, by pointing at the water chemistry slide, tolook at the amazing water chemistry differences between the two.

The Rio Negro’s black waters are a result of their origin in the mineral poor tropicalrainforests of northwestern Brazil. Alternatively, the Rio Solimoes originates in the Andesand covers a great deal more distance than the Rio Negro. Therefore, its waters aremineral rich. The Rio Negro is acidic, much like our boreal rivers that carry heavy loads ofcarbonic acid, while Rio Solimoes water is almost neutral. As its name implies, the watersof the Rio Negro are very black when seen from aerial or satellite views, whereas those ofthe Rio Solimoes are muddy and creamy looking from the same views. Even after therivers come together, you can see these colour differences far downstream. Of coursethese differences mean that fish living in each river are adapting to these very differentconditions. Therefore, this is an ideal spot for comparative fish physiology.

From the category “I did not KNOW that!” Yuxiang tells us that the intense flow of theAmazon River pushes its fresh water 300 kms out to sea in the South Atlantic. Shipscrossing this band of fresh water would sink if they were too heavily laden, due to thedrop in buoyancy crossing from salt to Amazon River water.

The Pirarucu (Arapaima gigas), shown above, grows to enormous sizes in the challengingAmazon waters. Like most fish, (tuna and billfish are exceptions), Pirarucu arepoikilotherms, that is their body temperatures change with environmental temperaturechanges. Since water has a high heat capacity, much higher than air, poikilotherms haveless of a challenge in water than terrestrial vertebrates. This gigantic Amazon fish adaptsin many ways. In the very warm oxygen-poor waters of the Amazon, Pirarucu breathe airusing an adapted swim bladder. Another extraordinary adaptation is the Pirarucu kidney.Most animals need a way to excrete nitrogen, a necessary by-product of body wastemanagement. Birds, reptiles and insects excrete uric acid, and mammals excrete urea.These latter biochemicals avoid the toxicity of the simpler nitrogen compound, ammonia.


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Pirarucu photo by Yuxiang Wang

Oscar photo by Yuxiang Wang.

Therefore, it is astonishing to learn that the Pirarucu isammonotelic, excreting ammonia. The warm Amazon watersdo lack oxygen, and daily oxygen and temperaturefluctuations may also be great.

The Oscar (Astronotus oscellatus), pictured below, is highlyadapted to avoiding hypercapnia, excessive carbon dioxidein the bloodstream, typically caused by inadequaterespiration.

Just for fun: did you know that teleosts make up such alarge part of the oceans’ biomass that their “poop”maintains the pH of the waters, regulating acid-base levels.

To China we go…. Professor Wang has conducted ongoingresearch at the remarkable Lake Qinghai, a very large lakeon the cold, dry north central plain of China. Recentsocioeconomic developments and internal migration havechanged the local human population culture. The originalinhabitants have great respect for the lake and its formallyteeming fish species, the Naked Carp (Gymnocyprisprzewalski). The newly arrived inhabitants have decided todevelop irrigation-based agriculture in the lands around thelake, which has resulted in a 10-12 cm drop per year in lakelevels. The pH of the lake is 9.4 (very basic), and it has ahigh

Magnesium and low Calcium concentration.When lake volume decreases, salinityincreases, putting the animals adapted tothe natural pH at risk. You may read aboutthe lake’s story in the work cited in the slidebelow (Wood et al.) and by following up withProfessor Wang’s research.

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Naked Carp (photo by Yuxiang Wang).

The next slide cites “Wood et al” and their work on how the carp have adapted to therapid (only 50 years) decline in Lake Qinghai water volumes and increased salinity. Wang’swork has shown that much needs to be done to protect the lake and its biologicalcommunity, as imbalances threaten its most vulnerable rare species.

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The students also had many field opportunities during their two weeks in Canada. Theytoured the Thousand Islands and the Kingston sewage treatment plant. They went toParliament Hill in Ottawa and then, very central to any Canadian biologist’s bucket list,visited the collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Aylmer, Quebec. Thanks toTeam Round-headed Apple Borer and to Mark Szenteczki for the following photos:

In the collections at Canadian Museum of Nature

Thanks to the students and Mark, and these two course creators,producers, directorsand stars. We will see you in China for this course next year!

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Professor Yuxiang Wang and Professor Stephen Lougheed. And your Blogger, Art.

Yuxiang and Steve

Tree Swallows research is the next topic, and look for stories and photos featuringProfessor Raleigh Robertson, the long-time Director of QUBS, who started Tree Swallowresearch at Queen’s in the 1970s. Also, some photos of QUBS will be featured.

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