warmwater cool water cold waterLOTIC benthic darters, dace, sculpin, darters sculpin
stonerollers, bullhead
water bluegill, esocids yellow perch trout, salmon column smallmouth bass,
fallfish, channel cats
LENTIC benthic dace sculpin, darters burbot, sculpin
demersal bass, centrarchids yellow perch
pelagic walleye clupeids salmonids, coregonids, lamprey
Freshwater environments
Estuarine environment - challenging 1. Freshwater; usually temporary residents
2. Diadromous a. Found in large numbers as they travel through estuary b. Staging area (before moving upstream) e.g. salmon c. Nursery (e.g. shad)
3. True residents (entire life cycle in estuary)Few species in this category, e.g. white perch
4. Non-dependent marineCommonly found in lower reaches of estuary e.g. sculpins, flounders, surfperch
5. Dependent marine (a least 1 life-cycle stage)Spawning grounds or nurseries or feeding grounds for adults
Intertidal environment – very harsh Crashing surf Strong currents/tides Daily exposure to air But, great spatial heterogeneity, abundance of food
Intertidal (littoral) environment Residential status of the ichthyofauna: 1. True residents: (dominant)
e.g. sculpins, blennies, clingfishes, gobies, gunnels
2. Partial residents (juveniles): (dominant)e.g. blennies, surfperches, labrids, some cottids, pholids
3. Tidal (= feeders) many species
4. Seasonal (= spawners) few species
Neritic zone terratogenic sources of nutrients within the photic zone, highly productive energy from waves, tides, for mixing
coral reefs, kelp forestshighly complex physical habitat, diverse physical nicheshighly speciose - about 40% of fish fauna - 6000-8000 spp
many species, few members, mostly smallmany specialized adaptations, particularly for feeding
continental shelfarea out to 200 m deep - average 700 km widemud/silt substrate, not complex, little structural complexitymostly ground feeders - gadids, pleuronectidsfew species, very abundant, mostly large (up to 1m)
Barriers to marine dispersal
continental drift – separated continental shelf areas
continents – absolute barriersisthmus of Panama, Suez, closed ~ 3.7mya
submerged geographic features – mountains, sills
temperature – tropics vs. temperate, currents
salinity barriers – polar regions
Freshwater fishes
Paleozoic MYACambrian 570Ordovician 505 first fishesSilurian 38Devonian 408 placoderms; age of fishesCarboniferous 360 hagfishes and lampreysPermian 286
MesozoicTriassic 245 Pangea convergence – paddlefish, sturgeonJurassic 208 Pangea split bowfins, gars, lungishes Cretaceous 144 Esocidae, Umbridae, Salmonidae
Cenozoic Tertiary
Paleocene 65 Cyrpinidae, Percidae, CatasomidaeEocene 58 Centrarchidae, Ictaluridae, Oligocene 38Miocene 24Pliocene 5
QuaternaryPleistocene 1.8 period of glaciationRecent
Six ichthyofaunal groups based on origin (Gilbert, 1976):
EurasianEsocidae, Umbridae, Cyprinidae, Catostomidae, Percidae
North American (endemics)Ictaluridae, Centrarchidae, Goodeidae, Amblyopsidae, Hiodontidae, Percopsidae, Aphredoderidae
Marine originCottidae, Sciaenidae, Atherinidae, Cyprinodontidae, Petromyzontidae, Anguillidae
Central AmericanPoeciliidae
South AmericanCharacidae, Pimelodidae, Cichlidae
Archaic Old-World (Laurasian)Amiidae, Lepisosteidae, Polyodontidae, Acipenseridae