Stability, persistence and habitat associations of the pearl darter Percina aurora in the Pascagoula River System, southeastern USA

Sr Clark,Wt Slack,Jf Schaefer,Br Kreiser,Ma Dugo

doi:10.3354/esr00897

Abstract

ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 36:99-109 (2018) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00897 Stability, persistence and habitat associations of the pearl darter Percina aurora in the Pascagoula River System, southeastern USA Scott R. Clark1,4,*, William T. Slack2, Brian R. Kreiser1, Jacob F. Schaefer1, Mark A. Dugo3 1Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406, USA 2US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory EEA, Vicksburg, Mississippi 39180, USA 3Mississippi Valley State University, Department of Natural Sciences and Environmental Health, Itta Bena, Mississippi 38941, USA 4Present address: Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA *Corresponding author: scottrclark2@gmail.com ABSTRACT: The southeastern United States represents one of the richest collections of aquatic biodiversity worldwide; however, many of these taxa are under an increasing threat of imperilment, local extirpation, or extinction. The pearl darter Percina aurora is a small-bodied freshwater fish endemic to the Pearl and Pascagoula river systems of Mississippi and Louisiana (USA). The last collected specimen from the Pearl River drainage was taken in 1973, and it now appears that populations in this system are likely extirpated. This reduced the historical range of this species by approximately 50%, ultimately resulting in federal protection under the US Endangered Species Act in 2017. To better understand the current distribution and general biology of extant populations, we analyzed data collected from a series of surveys conducted in the Pascagoula River drainage from 2000 to 2016. Pearl darters were captured at relatively low abundance (2.4 ± 4.0 ind. per collection) from 57% of 308 collections. We identified strong relationships between local habitat variables and occurrence and catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) of pearl darters. Pearl darters were frequently encountered and in greater abundance in depositional areas characterized by low-velocity habitats and finer substrates. Patterns of occurrence and CPUE were spatiotemporally variable across years; however, repeated collections from a subset of localities collected across a decade or more indicated long-term persistence and stability, suggesting population resilience throughout the Pascagoula River drainage. KEY WORDS: Pearl darter · Pascagoula River · Historical distribution · Habitat associations Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Clark SR, Slack WT, Kreiser BR, Schaefer JF, Dugo MA (2018) Stability, persistence and habitat associations of the pearl darter Percina aurora in the Pascagoula River System, southeastern USA. Endang Species Res 36:99-109. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00897 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 36. Online publication date: June 13, 2018 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2018 Inter-Research.

Highlights

The aquatic biodiversity of the southeastern United States ranks highly in the world in terms of species richness and endemism, with a diverse array of taxa including mollusks (Lydeard et al 2004), crustaceans (Crandall & Buhay 2008), turtles (Buhlmann et al 2009), and fishes (Warren et al 2000, Abell et al 2008, Jelks et al 2008)
Some members are widespread (P. copelandi ranges from southern Oklahoma and Arkansas up through some Great Lakes regions; Suttkus et al 1994), the pearl darter is historically known from only the Pearl and
Excluding sites sampled with experimental gear types (6 sites and 2 ind.), mean (± SD) CPUE (PD h−1) and occurrence was generally highest in the Chickasawhay River (CPUE: 5.2 ± 7.0 PD h−1; occurrence: 0.67 ± 0.47), followed by the Pascagoula (CPUE: 3.1 ± 4.1 PD h−1; occurrence: 0.56 ± 0.50) and Leaf rivers (CPUE: 2.4 ± 5.7 PD h−1; occurrence: 0.46 ± 0.50); these patterns were somewhat variable across years

Summary

Introduction

The aquatic biodiversity of the southeastern United States ranks highly in the world in terms of species richness and endemism, with a diverse array of taxa including mollusks (Lydeard et al 2004), crustaceans (Crandall & Buhay 2008), turtles (Buhlmann et al 2009), and fishes (Warren et al 2000, Abell et al 2008, Jelks et al 2008). The pearl darter Percina aurora (Perciformes: Percidae) was formally described in 1994 on the basis of specimens from the Pearl (type specimen from the Strong River, a tributary to the Pearl) and Pascagoula River drainages in southeastern Louisiana and southern Mississippi (Suttkus et al 1994, our Fig. 1) It was subsequently proposed for federal protection in 1999 and considered endangered by the Southeastern Fishes Council Technical Advisory Committee in 2000 (Warren et al 2000). Some members are widespread (P. copelandi ranges from southern Oklahoma and Arkansas up through some Great Lakes regions; Suttkus et al 1994), the pearl darter is historically known from only the Pearl and (shaded region)

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Results

Conclusion