Abstract
Deviations in bilateral symmetry or fluctuating asymmetry of an organism may result under environmental stressors that reduce developmental homeostasis and stability. Anthropogenic stressors such as increased urbanization can negatively impact environmental quality of aquatic ecosystems. Researchers have stressed the value in finding easy, accurate and inexpensive methods for assessing potential stress within ecosystems. Here we use fluctuating asymmetry (FA) as a useful quantitative tool in assessing the environmental quality and potential urban-based stressors within eight creeks of the Bull and Upatoi Creeks Watershed within the larger watershed of the Middle Chattahoochee. Using Geographic Information System (GIS), we characterize land-use patterns and a decreasing urbanization gradient as related to each creek’s eastward position from Columbus, Georgia. We collected two common fishes (redbreast sunfish; Lepomis auritus and bluegill; Lepomis macrochirus), measured both metric and meristic traits and investigated if the degree of FA in these two common fishes correlated with the urbanization gradient across creeks. We found significant differences in FA among creeks with one of the highest FA measures for the most urban creek. Principal component analysis (PCA) scores of urbanization and water chemistry were regressed against FA scores. We found no significant relationship between urbanization and FA nor environmental water chemistry and FA among creeks. We comment on the use of FA as a potential response variable and biological indicator of environmental stress within this watershed.
Highlights
Bilateral symmetry results from identical developmental patterns on both anatomical sides of an organism
Because water chemistry is related to the land-use characteristics of urbanization [37], chemical factors were quantified (Table 3)
We use Geographic Information System (GIS) to spatially characterize urbanization and a land-use gradient (e.g., [33,34,35]) across eight creeks to investigate if increased urbanization would predict an increased degree of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) within resident fishes (Lepomis) of the Bull and Upatoi Creeks watershed
Summary
Bilateral symmetry results from identical developmental patterns on both anatomical sides of an organism. Estes et al found that eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) from a stream with high levels of paper mill effluent exhibited greater FA than mosquitofish from streams free of effluent [18] Anthropogenic stressors such as increased urbanization can negatively impact environmental quality of ecosystems [19,20,21,22]. We use FA to investigate potential anthropogenic stressors within eight creeks located along an urban disturbance gradient within and just east of Columbus, Georgia. This watershed (Figure 1) is experiencing rapid urban development and changes in land-use which are predicted to influence common metrics of environmental quality.
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