Abstract
Migration of large-bodied “macroconsumers” (e.g., fishes, shrimps, and snails) is an important functional linkage between many tropical rivers and their estuaries. Increasingly, this linkage is being severed by dams and water abstraction. The ecological impacts of these activities are poorly understood and are largely being ignored by dam operators. We investigated the direct effects of a water intake and low-head dam on the migration of amphidromous freshwater shrimps between the headwater streams and estuary of the Rio Espiritu Santo, Puerto Rico, USA. Both downstream migratory drift of larvae and upstream migration of postlarvae had strong diel patterns, with most activity occurring at night. Unlike large dams on the island, this low-head dam did not act as a complete barrier to the upstream migration of metamorphosed postlarvae. However, the dam did cause large numbers of postlarval shrimps to accumulate directly downstream of the structure. Mortality of drifting first-stage larvae by entrainment into...
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