Louis Addo (Doctoral Student), Mahboobeh Hajiesmaeli (Post-doctoral Researcher), John Piccolo (Professor) and John Watz (Associate Professor in Biology) all from the River Ecology and Management Research Group RivEM, Department of Environmental and Life Sciences at Karlstad University have recently published a paper entitled “Growth and mortality of sympatric Atlantic salmon and brown trout fry in fluctuating and stable flows” with the journal Ecology of Freshwater Fish.
In their paper, they explore the potential effects of hydropeaking or short-term regulated rivers on the growth and mortality of sympatric Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) at the fry life stage.
Daniel Nyqvist from Politecnico di Torino will be giving a seminar entitled Fish movement and behavior in industrial waters – electromagnetism, noise and ecohydraulics on Tuesday 31 May 2022 at 13.15 CEST over zoom https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology.
Daniel’s current research focuses on fish behavior and ecology in regulated rivers. Also, he is interested in movement ecology, effects of acoustic noise and electromagnetism on fish behavior, conservation, and the connections between ecology and socioeconomics.
Dr. Erin McCallum, a researcher at (Forskare) at SLU in Umeå will be giving a talk about waterwater effluents and salmonid migration in freshwaters on Tuesday 5th April at 13.15 CET over zoom. Erin is a behavioral ecologist and ecotoxicologist interested in understanding the causes and consequences of anthropogenic stressors for aquatic wildlife. Erin’s seminar is entitled “A tale of two research programs: Wastewater effluents and salmonid migration in freshwaters”. She will present her current research on wastewater effects on fish communities and the migratory success of anadromous brown trout smolt. You can visit Erin’s page to read more about her research interest.
On Tuesday 8 December Kalle Filipsson, RivEM PhD student, will present his work on how elevated temperatures and predator presence during egg incubation affect development and behaviour of brown trout. The seminar starts at 13:15 and will be streamed live on Zoom. Contact Kalle (karl.filipsson@kau.se) if you are interested in attending the seminar, and he will send you a link.
The flumes used to study grayling behaviour in the experiment, emptied (left) and filled (right) with water.
In the abstract of the paper the authors write:
“Cost‐effective
implementation of fish‐friendly hydropower flow operation and habitat
restoration measures require an understanding of their effects on
fitness‐related behaviours of stream fish. Here, we investigated how changes in
flow and bottom structure influence the social behaviour of European grayling,
using large experimental flumes (700 L s−1), with and without
added boulders (i.e., restored and unrestored habitat). Grayling increased
their distance to nearest neighbour at the start of flow ramping up and after a
flow peak compared to stable base flow. At the start of ramping up the flow, grayling
made less position changes (movements >1 m) than at stable base flow and
after a flow peak. In the unrestored habitat, the proportion of time grayling
spent actively swimming was lower before a flow peak than it was both at the
start of ramping up the flow and after the peak, an effect not found in the
restored habitat. In addition, we compared two static flows, and habitat
restoration mediated their effect on distance to nearest neighbour. Grayling in
the restored habitat were positioned closer to each other in the low (~10 cm s−1) than in the intermediate static flow (~40 cm s−1), whereas in the unrestored habitat, grayling showed the
opposite pattern. Moreover, grayling reduced their number of position changes
in the intermediate static flow, which was reflected by a reduction in active
swimming. Stomach analysis after the trials revealed that foraging success was
higher in variable than in the stable flow treatment. These results show that
flow magnitude, flow changes and instream structure play important roles in the
behaviour of stream fishes.”
On Tuesday 26 May Roman Motyka, NRRV PhD student, will give a seminar entitled “The role of behavior and habitat use in conservation biology of the European eel (Anguilla anguilla). During this seminar, Roman will present his plans for his PhD project.
The seminar starts at 13:15 and will be held online and streamed via the video communication system Zoom. Everyone who wants to attend the seminar are welcome to do so. We will not distribute the zoom link to the seminar publicly online. If you want to attend the seminar, contact Roman (roman.motyka@kau.se) or Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se), and they will send you a zoom link so that you can participate.
Roman Motyka (right) and Tobias Knieps (left) with some eels in a net.
As a member of the European consortium RIBES (River flow regulation, fish Behaviour and Status), the River Ecology and Management research group at Karlstad University invites applicants to three PhD positions on fish migration and passage in regulated rivers. In addition to thethree PhD positions in Karlstad, RIBES also announces 12 more PhD positions in Belgium, Estonia, Germany,Italy and the UK as part of the same network.
To be eligible for one of the PhD positions in Karlstad, candidates cannot have resided in Sweden for12 months or longer in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date.
On Friday 13 March, Kalle Filipsson, NRRV PhD-student, will defend his (my) licentiate thesis. The thesis has the title ”From behaviour to genes: anti-predator responses of brown trout (Salmo trutta) under winter conditions”. The defense will be held in room 1B309 (Sjöströmsalen) at Karlstad University, and starts at 10:00. Stefán Óli Steingrímsson, Professor at Hólar University, Iceland, is the opponent. The defense is open for everyone who wishes to attend.
Kalle’s licentiate thesis, nailed to one of the “theses trees” at the Biology Department at Karlstad University.
Three juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta), doing trout stuff in a stream flume at Karlstad University.
On Tuesday 25 February, Kalle Filipsson, RivEM PhD student, will give a seminar entitled ”From behaviour to genes: anti-predator responses of brown trout under winter conditions”. The seminar starts at 13.15 in room 5F416, everyone who wants to is welcome to attend the seminar.
This seminar is a practice seminar in preparation for Kalle’s (my) licentiate defense, which will be held Friday 13 March at 10:00. More information about the licentiate seminar will be provided closer to the defense.
Juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta). Photo: Karl Filipsson
A burbot (Lota lota) in a stream flume at Karlstad University. Photo: Karl Filipsson
On Tuesday 5 November, Stefán Óli Steingrímsson, Professor at Hólar University College, Iceland, will visit Karlstad University and give a seminar titled “Salmonid behaviour in space & time: Some lessons from Iceland”. The seminar starts at 13:15 in room 5F416 at Karlstad University. Everyone who wants to are welcome to attend the seminar.
Hjaltadalur valley on northern Iceland, seen from Hólar.
