Has Urbanization Had an Effect on the Spawning Season of Campostoma oligolepis, Largescale Stonerollers?
Disciplines
Applied Statistics | Environmental Studies
Abstract (300 words maximum)
There are two main factors that contribute to the beginning of a fishes spawning season, water temperature and amount of day light. The temperature for peak spawning of the Largescale Stoneroller is between 12° C and 14° C, so we predict that the environment that reaches this temperature range first would have an earlier spawning season. Further more, water temperatures are commonly greater in urban environments because they have little tree cover in comparison to a forested environment which consists of a thick canopy over tributaries. We predict that the spawning season for Largescale Stonerollers found in an urban environment will be shifted ahead of the spawning season for Stonerollers found in a forested environment. To predict the beginning of the spawning season we will explore the peak GSI for each gender by location.
Additionally, since male Stonerollers build nests for female Stonerollers to initiate spawning, we predict that male Campostoma will reach their peak gonadosomatic index prior to females in both the urban and forested environments.
To test these hypotheses male and female Largescale Stonerollers were sampled from two streams in Paulding County and Cobb County over an eight-month span.
Academic department under which the project should be listed
CCSE - Data Science and Analytics
Primary Investigator (PI) Name
Dr. William Ensign
Has Urbanization Had an Effect on the Spawning Season of Campostoma oligolepis, Largescale Stonerollers?
There are two main factors that contribute to the beginning of a fishes spawning season, water temperature and amount of day light. The temperature for peak spawning of the Largescale Stoneroller is between 12° C and 14° C, so we predict that the environment that reaches this temperature range first would have an earlier spawning season. Further more, water temperatures are commonly greater in urban environments because they have little tree cover in comparison to a forested environment which consists of a thick canopy over tributaries. We predict that the spawning season for Largescale Stonerollers found in an urban environment will be shifted ahead of the spawning season for Stonerollers found in a forested environment. To predict the beginning of the spawning season we will explore the peak GSI for each gender by location.
Additionally, since male Stonerollers build nests for female Stonerollers to initiate spawning, we predict that male Campostoma will reach their peak gonadosomatic index prior to females in both the urban and forested environments.
To test these hypotheses male and female Largescale Stonerollers were sampled from two streams in Paulding County and Cobb County over an eight-month span.