1. Welcome to Ecology of Fishes Laboratory Zoology 511

2. What is a Fish? Poikilothermic – body temperature is identical to surrounding water Chordates – have developmental characteristics of all vertebrates Appendages developed as fins Chief respiratory organs are gills Body generally covered with scales “A fish is an aquatic vertebrate with gills and with limbs in the shape of fins” (Nelson 1994) There are over 25,000 fish species, so there are exceptions to these general characteristics.

3. Fish vs. Fishes “This tank is full of fish.” “The ocean is full of fishes.”

4. How fish are named Common name, Genus species speckled perch, specks, papermouth, bachelor perch, calico bass, strawberry bass, or white perch. Black crappie, Pomaxis annularis

5. Fish Ecology….? What’s Ecology -is the study of the distribution and abundance of living organisms and how the distribution and abundance are affected by interactions between the organisms and their environment (Krebs).

6. In my analysis, the spectrum ranges from ichthyology (evolution, taxonomy, structure and function, and biogeography of fishes); fish biology (metabolism, energetics, tolerances sensory process, behavior, reproduction, age/growth principles, demography, etc.); fish ecology (generally relating fish to their biotic environment at the individual, population, community and ecosystem levels); fish assessment (I say fish, instead of fishery, because we sometimes need to assess non exploited populations) that includes sampling methods tagging, analysis of sampled data (e.g. population size or structure); fishery resources (global and regional fisheries and their economic, sociological values (commercial and recreational), gears, markets, etc.; and finally fishery management (how to analyze fisheries (stock assessment, modeling, etc) and apply everything else to manage exploited or protected resources). PHEWWW! An Excerpt from an email of Dr. Randy Edwards

8. Ichthyology: (Fish biology) is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish. Fishery: A fishery (plural: fisheries) is an organized effort by humans to catch fish or other aquatic species, an activity known as fishing. Fisheries Management: The effort to regulate where, when and how people fish, and how many fish they catch, to protect fish populations so that people can continue to fish. Fisheries Science: Think of fisheries science as all the math behind fisheries management. That is, how do you make informed decisions on how to regulate people to protect fish populations? All of these are incorporated into fish ecology and fish ecology plays an important role in all of the above! Some definitions of terms you’ll hear

9. Dorsal Anatomical terminology of a fish… Ventral Posterior or caudal Anterior Lateral Used for relating different parts….Eye is posterior to the mouth Conversely the mouth is anterior to the eye

10. Fins of a fish… Dorsal Anal Pelvic Pectoral Adipose Pectoral Pelvic Caudal

11. Bowfin (Amia calva) Giant snakehead Dorsal

13. Fins spines vs. rays Bluegill Black Crappie

15. Fish Scale Types

17. Scutes on a sturgeon are a modification of scales

18. Mouth placement vs. superior terminal inferior

19. Maxilla Premaxilla

20. Swim bladder Ovary Heart Liver Stomach Intestine Fat deposits Internal anatomy – the basics that help understand the ecology!

22. Gills and Gill Rakers Gill arch Gill filaments Gill rakers

23. Ecology influences anatomy

24. Northern Pike FISH WITH TEETH Not all Teeth are pointy! vomerine teeth MuskieWalleye Burbot Longfinned Eel Chinook Salmon

25. Barbels: nothing is easier to identify!! Yellow Bullhead Brown Bullhead Burbot

26. Oddballs: Rostrum

27. Measure anatomy to do ecological studies

28. Enough lecture, lets look at some fish

29. Why in the $#%* do we have to do all this writing in our fishes course? Get lots of instruction on writing…not as much on scientific writing, what is the difference? Importance of being able to express your thoughts, regardless of what career you choose Research techniques are universal If you go on in science, it is the only currency that matters?.......what do I mean by that?

30. Peer Review…? Criticism is important…”constructive criticism” is best! Two types: Internal and External. Point of internal review is to make external review go well When you are reviewing someone else’s work think how you would want to be reviewed…..You want to do the best job you can…but you don’t want to be yelled at to do it! You are going to do this for each other

31. The paper process… Observation or idea –It looks like every time we catch white suckers, we are sampling in a deeper portion of the stream…? –I wonder if the biomass of non-trout species is related to the biomass of trout species? Develop Hypothesis –It looks like every time we catch white suckers, we are sampling in a deeper portion of the stream…? –I wonder if the biomass of non-trout species is related to the biomass of trout species? Hit the literature –What does everyone else have to say about this

32. Where do you find information… 1.Web, Google and Google Scholar 2.Online Databases 1.Biological Abstracts 2.ISI Web of Science

33. Hypothesis Testing An educated guess or prediction about an experiment, behavior, outcome, relationship etc. Statistical Terms The null hypothesis (H 0 ) fish growth 1 = fish growth 2 The alternative hypothesis (H 1 ) fish growth 1  fish growth 2

34. Order of a scientific paper (on paper) 1.Title 2.Abstract 3.Introduction 4.Methods – study site, data analyses 5.Results – graphs, tables analyses 6.Discussion 7.Literature Cited

35. Order you write a scientific paper 1.Observe or Read primary literature 2.Results – start with a picture, tell your story 3.Discussion – what’s cool about your story, also relative to what other people found 4.Methods – what did you do to get your results 5.Introduction – background on what you found 6.Abstract – just the highlights 7.Title – make it work for your story 8.Literature Cited

36. How to do the first step..... 1.Observe or Read primary literature Use your fish from class 1. Web, Google and Google Scholar 2. Online Databases Biological Abstracts ISI Web of Science