Progress and Priorities for the Recovery of Aquatic Species at Risk in Canada

^{Humpback whale diving in waters of British Columbia, with misty fog shrouded hills of the Great Bear Rainforest in the background. Photo: Bobbushphoto/iStock}

The federal Species at Risk Act was implemented in 2003 as a legal mechanism to identify, protect, and drive the recovery of wildlife species listed as at-risk in Canada. While the Species at Risk Act has received criticism that it fails to protect Canadian biodiversity due to listing process delays and biases, there are clear examples of progress in recovery planning and management actions.

This collection highlights the diverse research and practice contributing to the recovery of species at risk across Canada, with an emphasis on aquatic species, both freshwater and marine. Topics span taxonomic groups and also tie to a wide toolbox of approaches used in species at risk recovery strategies and their recent advances, including population monitoring, habitat restoration, delineation of habitat requirements and tolerances, reintroduction, and strategies for threat monitoring and mitigation.

This collection will illustrate the multidisciplinary approaches that come into play during species at risk recovery, and how to increase interconnectedness and transferability across the aquatic sciences. This collection will emphasize the links between science, policy, and practice. In addition to research focused on federally-listed species, it will also include papers focused on provincial and territorial contexts and appreciate the value of a local to national perspective. Finally, the collection will be forward-thinking with contributions highlighting research priorities for the future of species at risk protection and recovery in Canadian aquatic systems.

New articles are continuously being added to the collection.

OPEN ACCESS
Conserving at-risk aquatic species in agricultural drains
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 10
Many of Canada’s waterways are modified by the deepening and straightening of stream channels, converting them into agricultural drains to create arable land. While these agricultural drains support diverse aquatic communities and provide important habitat for species at risk, current policies allow for maintenance activities that threaten the survival and longevity of at-risk fish populations. Using three case studies from Ontario, we highlight current challenges to protecting aquatic species at risk in agricultural drains and potential conservation actions that can be taken to protect and restore aquatic species at risk and their habitat within those drains. Conservation actions may vary from ecological modeling to collaborative development of mitigation techniques, and restoration of naturalized habitat in anticipation of future alterations. We provide nine recommendations (including improved legislation, permitting, mitigation, and compliance) on how to better conserve and protect aquatic species at risk in agricultural drains in the future.
OPEN ACCESS
Effects of acute suspended sediment exposure on the swimming and schooling performance of imperilled Redside Dace (Clinostomus elongatus)
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 10
Urbanization is a widespread threat to freshwater ecosystems. After rainfall, urban streams often experience unnaturally fast water flows and acute increases in suspended sediment due to the high degree of adjacent impervious land surface. Suspended sediments may negatively affect fishes by impairing respiration, and reduced water clarity may also affect social behaviours such as schooling that are dependent on visual cues. Given these two mechanisms of harm, suspended sediments may therefore exacerbate the difficulty of swimming at high water velocities. We tested this idea using imperilled Redside Dace (Clinostomus elongatus) to examine the consequences of suspended sediment on swimming performance and schooling behaviour. Using individual fish, we assayed swimming performance (standard critical swim speed test) and tail beat frequency and amplitude under a range of ecologically relevant sediment concentrations. Next, we measured the impact of sediment on the cohesion and polarization of schools. Swimming performance of individual fish was not affected by suspended sediment levels we examined. School polarization was positively correlated with water flow overall and at the fastest flows we tested; schools were more polarized when exposed to sediment. School cohesion decreased with increasing flows and was unaffected by the suspended sediment levels we examined. Our results collectively suggest that swimming performance of Redside Dace may be resilient to ecologically relevant acute suspended sediment exposure.
OPEN ACCESS
Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) migratory behaviour and seasonal home range overlap are functions of geographic space in a fragmented riverscape
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 17
In temperate rivers, where environmental conditions vary seasonally, many fishes migrate among summer, spawning, and winter habitats. Dams disrupt these migrations, limiting access to habitat and potentially affecting populations. Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) is a species of fish with at-risk populations in central Canada. The impact of dams on the extent of Bigmouth Buffalo migration and the overlap between summer and winter home ranges is unknown. Here, we assessed the migratory history of 80 Bigmouth Buffalo tagged with acoustic transmitters in the Red River (USA and Canada), a large binational waterway regulated by semi-passable dams. We sought to understand when and why Bigmouth Buffalo migrate, and how river use varies seasonally. Following more than 6 years of data collection, we found that the degree and probability of overlap between winter and summer home ranges varied by river section between barriers. Importantly, overlap was lowest in the longest continuous river section where well-defined migratory behaviours were observed. The results of this study reveal previously unknown details about Bigmouth Buffalo migration, demonstrate the consequences of river fragmentation on geographic space use, and highlight the importance of river connectivity to fish migration.
OPEN ACCESS
Seasonal movement and habitat use of Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) near the northern geographic range extent
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 15
The movement ecology of Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in watersheds at the northern geographic range extent is not well understood. We implanted 54 Bull Trout with acoustic transmitters in the Prairie Creek watershed, Northwest Territories, Canada and tracked fish from July 2011 to October 2012 using 19 stationary hydrophones. Bull Trout movement patterns generally corresponded to two groups, as a result of individual variation within and across seasons. The first group exhibited seasonal variations in movement and habitat use, moving most (range 11.7–115.9 km) and occupying the largest home ranges in summer and autumn, while exhibiting little movement during winter and spring. The second group made negligible movements within seasons and resided in localized areas. Restricted movement in winter resulted in a severe range contraction. The average distance moved within a season was 11.5 km (range 0.3–64.9 km per fish). The unusually high prevalence of stationarity in this watershed suggest fish can complete all life processes (spawning, feeding, and rearing) in short reaches (<10 km) of Prairie Creek and tributaries. We encourage researchers to replicate our work in other northern watersheds to determine if the life history we describe represents a regional divergence from more southerly populations.
OPEN ACCESS
The effect of riffle restoration on the recovery of endangered Nooksack Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae sp. cataractae)
- John Gray,
- Jordan Rosenfeld,
- Mike Pearson,
- Kay Colletti, and
- Jeremy Ross
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 15
The Nooksack Dace (Rhinichthys cataractae sp. cataractae) is a federally endangered riffle specialist endemic to the lower Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada, with historic population declines associated with riffle loss from stream dredging, channelization, and excessive sediment inputs. To assess the effectiveness of riffle restoration as a recovery strategy, gravel and cobble riffles were constructed in two replicate tributaries of the Nooksack River as a before-after-control-impact experiment, measuring dace abundance, substrate composition, and invertebrate biomass before and one year after restoration. Nooksack Dace density increased significantly in cobble (but not gravel) treatments relative to control riffles. Dace abundance was strongly associated with increased availability of interstitial refuges rather than substrate effects on invertebrate prey abundance, suggesting that interstitial space limits adult dace abundance. Young-of-the-year dace were not observed in one of the two restored streams despite riffle restoration, indicating increased dace density due to aggregation in higher-quality restored riffles. This recruitment limitation indicates persistence of a population bottleneck at an early life history stage that is not addressed by successful restoration of adult riffle habitat.
OPEN ACCESS
The long-term effects of water resource development on blood mercury levels and the trophic ecology of Namew (lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens)
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 13
Water resource development can alter the movement and ecology of sturgeons. We studied total (THg) and methylmercury concentrations in whole blood sampled non-lethally from namew (Moose Cree L-dialect, lake sturgeon, Acipenser fulvescens), an endangered and culturally important subsistence fish. Namew were sampled from two tributaries within the Moose Cree Homeland: the Lower Mattagami River (an impacted system with four hydroelectric generating stations) and the North French River (a reference system that is free-flowing system with no development). Results indicated namew from the North French River had higher blood [THg] than those from the Mattagami River. Further modeling showed that trophic position was the primary driver of these differences, with North French namew having the highest nitrogen isotope ratios. Based on further isotope modeling, crayfish were major components of namew diet at all sites, while other prey items differed between sites. Specifically, namew with unobstructed access to the lower watershed had notably more enriched isotope values when compared to the freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates sampled, implying that other prey not captured herein may contribute to their diets and [THg]. Overall, we found differences in namew’s trophic ecology but no elevation in blood mercury levels at a site impacted by hydroelectric operations 60+ years post-impoundment.
OPEN ACCESS
Transport does not influence maximum metabolic rate or thermal tolerance of endangered redside dace (Clinostomus elongatus)
FACETS • Vol. 9 • pp. 1 - 9
Reintroduction is an important tool in the conservation and recovery of aquatic species at risk. However, components of the reintroduction process such as transportation have the potential to induce physiological stress and the extent to which preparatory techniques can mitigate this stress is poorly understood in small-bodied fishes. To address this concern, we studied the effect of transport on two fitness-related performance measures: maximum metabolic rate and thermal tolerance in redside dace (Clinostomus elongatus), an imperilled small-bodied stream fish native to eastern North America. Prior to transportation, we manipulated the body condition of redside dace over a 12-week period, by providing either low (1% of their total body mass) or high (2% of their total body mass) rations. The goal of this manipulation was to influence body condition, as higher body condition can enhance physiological performance. Subsequently, redside dace were transported for varying durations: 0, 3, and 6 h. Following transportation, we measured maximum metabolic rate (µmol/h) and thermal tolerance (CT_max, °C). Our results indicate that neither transport nor body condition had a significant effect on maximum metabolic rate or thermal tolerance (CT_max). These findings provide preliminary evidence that redside dace can physiologically tolerate transport based on the endpoints measured and this information may possibly be extended to other small-bodied fish, for which information is lacking.

Curators

Steven Cooke

Guest Editor

Carleton University

Christine Madliger

Guest Editor

Algoma University

Trevor Pitcher

Guest Editor

University of Windsor

Marco Rodriguez

Guest Editor

Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières

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