Written as a stand-alone textbook for students and a useful reference for professionals in government and private agencies, academic institutions, and consultants, Ecology and Conservation of Fishes provides broad, comprehensive, and systematic coverage of all aquatic systems from the mountains to the oceans. The book begins with overview discussions on the ecology, evolution, and diversity of fishes. It moves on to address freshwater, estuarine, and marine ecosystems and identifies factors that affect the distribution and abundance of fishes. It then examines the adaptations of fishes as a response to constraints posed in ecosystems. The book concludes with four chapters on applied ecology to discuss the critical issues of management, conservation, biodiversity crises, and climate change.
Major marine fisheries have collapsed, and there are worldwide declines in freshwater fish populations. Fishery scientists and managers must become more effective at understanding and dealing with resource issues. If not, fish species, communities, and entire ecosystems will continue to decline as habitats change and species are lost. Ecology and Conservation of Fishes has taken a historical and functional approach to explain how we got where we are, providing old and new with a better foundation as ecologists and conservationists, and most importantly, it awakens senses of purpose and need. Past management practices are reviewed, present programs considered, and the need for incorporating principles of applied ecology in future practices is emphasized.
Use and Features of the Book
List of Greek and Latin Words
Introduction
Ecology of Fishes: Content and Scope
History of Ecology
Fish Ecology Explored.
What Is a Fish?
Fish: The First Vertebrate
Evolutionary Ecology of Fishes
Aquatic Evolution, Origins, and Affinities
Aquatic Evolution
Evolutionary Ecology
Origins and Affinities of Fishes
Paleoecology of Fishes
Aquatic Environment
Aquatic Ecosystems.
Properties of Water
Seawater
Fish in Water: Where is the Gravity?
Fish Diversity
Diversity 1: Chordates to Sharks
Introduction.
From Chordate to Vertebrate
Agnathans: Hagfishes and Lampreys
Conodonts and Ostracoderms
Early Gnathostomes.
Chondrichthyes.
Diversity 2: Teleostomes to Bony Fishes
Radiation of Teleostomes
Acanthodians: Spiny Ones
Sarcopterygians: Lobe-Fin Fishes
Actinopterygians: Ray-Fins
Diversity 3: Teleosts
Diversity and adaptation
Lower Teleosts
Cods and Anglerfishes
Higher Teleosts.
Radiations, Extinctions, and Biodiversity
Life on Earth Has Not Been Easy
Fish Extinctions and a Few Questions
Ecological Concepts
Case Study: Fishes of Fossil Lake.
Freshwater Ecosystems
Zoogeography of Fishes
Patterns and Species Diversity
Factors Affecting Distribution
Adaptation
Continental Movement
Fishes of Zoogeographic Regions
Vicariance Biogeography
Pleistocene Glaciation
The Future
Ecological Concepts
Lotic Systems: Flowing Water and the Terrestrial Environment
A Drop of Rain
Flowing Water
Characteristics of Streams
Ecological Concepts
Coldwater Streams
Structure and Function
Coldwater Fishes
Constraints on Trout
Case Study: Greenback Cutthroat Trout
Fishes of Warmwater Streams and Rivers
A warmwater Fish Viewpoint
The Stream Connected
Stream Fishes
Large River Fish Faunas
Case Study: The North American Paddlefish
Lentic Systems: Standing Water
The Drop is Stored (temporarily)
Standing Water Ecosystems
Characteristics of Lakes
Structure
Function
Fish in Lakes
Ecological Concepts
Case Study: Lake Baikal
Fishes of Temperate and Tropical Great Lakes
General
Fishes of temperate Lakes
Fishes of tropical lakes
Case Study: Cichlids of East African Great Lakes
Artificial Lakes and Groundwater Reservoirs
Artificial Lakes: Reservoirs
Structure and Function
Ecological Concepts.
Cumulative Effects
Fish and Reservoirs
Groundwater
Case Study: Death Valley and Devils Hole
Estuarine and Marine Ecosystems
Estuaries and Coastal Zone
Coastal Zone
What are Estuaries?
Drowned River Estuaries
Estuarine Fishes
Ecological Concepts
Estuaries as Nutrient Traps
Case Study: Alewives as Migrating Subsystems
Marine Environments, Intertidal Fishes, and Sharks
Oceanography and Marine Ecology
Intertidal Zone: Structure and Function.
Marine Fishes
Ecological Concepts
Case Study: The Ultimate Marine Predator.
Neritic Province and Fisheries
Inshore Ocean in Perspective
Pelagic Systems
Benthic Systems
Neritic Fishes and the Temperate Zone
Marine Commercial Fisheries
Case Study: Cod and Northwest Atlantic Groundfishery
Oceanic Province and Epipelagic Fishes
Province
Epipelagic Zone
Upwellings
Case Study: Peruvian Anchoveta
Deep Sea: Twilight to the Abyss
Features of the Deep Sea and Its Fishes
Mesopelagic Zone
Abyss
Deep Benthic and Benthopelagic
Seamounts
Fish Adaptations in the Deep Sea
Deepwater Fisheries
Case Study: Deep-Sea Anglerfish
Ecological Concepts
Fish Adaptation
Fitness, Morphology, and Ecophysiology
Adaptation and Fitness
Fish Morphology and Ecophysiology
Physicochemical Adaptation with Organs
Energy, Metabolism, and Growth
Energy Budgets
Fish Energetics
Metabolism
Growth and Aging
Metabolic Stress
Stress in Fishes
Case Study: Measuring Growth and Age in Hard Tissues
Adaptation, Niche, and Species Interactions
Adaptation
The Niche
Niche Overlap and Response
Species Interactions
Populations, Growth, and Regulation
Fish Populations in General
Present Status of Fish Populations
Population Characteristics
Population Growth
Population Regulation
Equilibrium/Nonequilibrium
Carrying Capacity Problem
Commercial Exploitation
Instinct, Learning, and Social Behavior
Why the Interest in Behavior?
Instinctive Behavior and Innate Mechanisms
Biological Clock (biorhythms)
Cognition and Learning
Nonreproductive Social Behavior
Cooperation
Machiavellian Intelligence
How to Study Behavior
Case Study: Behavioral Interactions.
Trophic Concept and Feeding
Trophic Concept
Trophic Cascade
Feeding adaptations
Food and Selectivity
Foraging Behavior and Theory
Case Study: Prey response—A Matter of Humps?
Reproductive Ecology and Life History Patterns
Reproductive Process
Life History Patterns
Reproductive Effort and Energy Allocation
Two Life History Strategies
Reproductive Tradeoffs: R and K Selection and a 3-D Continuum
Case Study: Timing of Spawning
Migration
Fish Move, Disperse, and Migrate
Finding the Way Back—Homing
Spawning Migrations
Examples and Descriptions
Oceanadromous Migrations of Atlantic Herring
Case Study: Migration of Colorado Pikeminnow
Larval Fish
Introduction and Importance
Reproduction and early Life
Description and Taxonomy
Larval Ontogeny
Larval Fish Ecology
The Niche Revisited.
Fisheries Ecology and Recruitment Concepts
Case Study—Larval fish movement
Applied Ecology: The Human Factor
Exploitation and Fisheries Management
Introduction
Historic Perspective
Management Practices
Fisheries: Practices and Problems.
Concepts of Sustainability
Ecosystem Approach
Case Study: Fish Salvage at Tracy.
Future of the Facility
Conservation of Fishes I: Crisis and a Response
Introduction
Biodiversity
Biodiversity Crisis.
Why are Species Presently Going Extinct?
How many Fish Do We Need?
Species Problem
A Response: The New Conservation
Endangered Fish Recovery?
Case Study: Can Science Save the Salmon?
Conservation of Fishes II: Understanding the Decline
Five Causes
Physical Habitat Alteration
Introduced Species
Overfishing
Hybridization
Water Pollution
Are All suspects Guilty?
Case Study: Chesapeake Bay—An Ecological Disaster.
Changes and the Future
Introduction
Interesting Times
Global Climate
GCC: Effects on Fish and Habitat.
Fish and Fisheries in the Future
Welcome to the Twenty-First Century.
Literature Cited
Glossary
Appendix -- A Guide to Major Fish Groups
Index
Biography
Harold M. Tyus is Emeritus Research Scientist at the Center for Limnology, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, where he taught Ecology of Fishes in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He also is an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Policy and Management at the University of Denver, where he teaches and serves as a faculty advisor. Dr. Tyus received his academic training in the Department of Zoology at North Carolina State University, with the aid of a National Science Foundation fellowship and a scholarship from the National Wildlife Federation. He also was affiliated with the North Carolina Cooperative Fishery Unit, earning an MS studying sunfish phylogenetics and a Ph.D. studying population dynamics and migrations of river herring. His minor concentration was in water resources management.
Dr. Tyus is a retired researcher and manager for the U.S. Government, serving 23 years with the Army Corps of Engineers and Fish and Wildlife Service. During that time he was involved with environmental impact assessment and studied a wide variety of aquatic habitats, fishes, and human-induced changes in waters of the United States, from east coast oceans, estuaries and wetlands to southwestern desert rivers. He has written and edited numerous scientific papers on fishes and government documents on fish ecology and conservation, including listing and recovery plans for Endangered Species.
He was a member of the Colorado River Fishes Recovery Team for 12 years, and he has been a consultant and science advisor for industry and government. His professional affiliations include the Desert Fishes Council, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the Society for Conservation Biology. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists and a life member of the American Fisheries Society, which has certified him as a Fishery Scientist and Fisheries Professional.
"Overall, this volume offers a very good overview of issues that are now critically important in efforts to maintain both fisheries and the ecosystems that support them and in the efforts to maintain biodiversity. … the examples provided and the overall depth of coverage, along with the engaging writing style, combine to make this a very readable and informative book."
—Susan A. Foster and John A. Baker, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 89, No. 1, 2014"Tyus (emer., Univ. of Colorado at Boulder) attempts to better educate future fisheries managers and to infuse classic ecological concepts into modern fisheries management. ...The author writes in a clear, concise manner and includes case studies to illustrate real-world lessons learned. Because of the content, this book is more appropriate for upper-division or graduate-level courses. However, it could be used in a variety of courses, including environmental science, fish and fisheries science, biology, ecology, and ichthyology. Recommended."
—K. R. Thompson, Ozarks Technical Community College, in CHOICE, May 2012"Overall, I find the approach to the subject very comprehensive and pedagogically user-friendly for introductory courses in Ecology and Conservation of Fishes. Dr. Tyus has brought his decades of experience to bear on this fine piece of work in a style that should appeal to students, instructors, and professionals."
—Emmanuel A. Frimpong, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University"The contents of a book do not always match the title of the book, but from what I read, this one does so magnificently. Dr. Tyus's early training in academia, his many years in active fisheries field research experiences, combined with his familiarity with the literature, followed by several successful years of teaching at the University of Colorado, Boulder, since his retirement from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, make this book unique among other texts or references. Moreover, his organization of and within each chapter is excellent, providing for very interesting reading. The full color plates add great interest to this fine text/reference."
—Walter R. Courtenay, Jr., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Zoology, Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Atlantic University"… has taken a historical and functional approach to explain how we got where we are, providing old and new with a better foundation as ecologists and conservationists, and most importantly, it awakens senses of purpose and need. Past management practices are reviewed, present programs considered, and the need for incorporating principles of applied ecology in future practices is emphasized. Includes a 16-page, full-color insert featuring 141 figures, as well as a glossary, a lexicon of Greek and Latin word roots, and an appendix on fish identification to help students master the text material."
—Northeastern Naturalist, December 2012