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Fish assemblages on two continents respond to valley- and reach-scale hydrogeomorphic variation: Analyses across three temperate ecoregions
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Fish assemblages on two continents respond to valley- and reach-scale hydrogeomorphic variation: Analyses across three temperate ecoregions

Mark Pyron, Alain Maasri, John Costello, Scott Kenner, Amarbat Otgonganbat, Bud Mendsaikhan, Sudeep Chandra, James H. Thorp, Emily R. Arsenault, Robert Shields, …
Ecology of freshwater fish, v 34(1), 12806
01 Jan 2025
url
https://doi.org/10.1111/eff.12806View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Fisheries Life Sciences & Biomedicine Marine & Freshwater Biology Science & Technology
Fish assemblages, defined by taxonomy or functional traits, -respond to regional and local habitat variation. Our hypothesis was that fish assemblages could be best predicted using reach-scale (RS) hydrology variables over valley-scale (VS) hydrogeomorphology variables for US and Mongolian rivers. We further predicted that fish traits were predicted better by RS than VS variables. We evaluated the FS and VS hydrogeomorphologies of rivers in the United States and Mongolia in each of three ecoregions: grassland, forest and endorheic. Fishes were collected using a backpack electrofisher, following standard protocols. Constrained ordination analyses were conducted at three scales: among continents, by continents and by individual ecoregions within continents. We found no significant difference in mean variation explained by VS versus RS or by taxonomy versus traits. Ecoregions differed in factors contributing to fish assemblage patterns, likely a result of differences in hydrogeomorphology, hydrological connectivity and historical influences. We found that fish assemblages were structured by hydrogeomorphic processes occurring at VS and RS, and that variables predicting fish assemblages varied with scale and whether fishes were classified by taxonomy or traits. Although anthropogenic impacts were substantially higher for western US rivers than for Mongolian rivers, we were unable to detect strong differences in our ability to predict fish assemblage variation from RS and VS habitat variables.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#15 Life on Land
#14 Life Below Water

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Fisheries
Marine & Freshwater Biology
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