Name: Every flood drives destructive Asian carp further into North American waters
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Every flood drives destructive Asian carp further into North American waters

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As spring arrives, so do the floods. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting intense flooding in the Midwest. The good news is that&nbsp;the floods are predicted to be less severe&nbsp;than those in 2019 that cost the Midwest but&nbsp;they’re still coming — and they may bring in some unwanted visitors.Scientists have long feared the arrival of silver and bighead carp — invasive fish native to Asia — to the Great Lakes. Invasive carp are already found in &nbsp;in the Mississippi River Basin and&nbsp;its&nbsp;tributaries. Another extreme flooding event could allow carp to move further upstream and head toward the Great Lakes, where scientists worry they could&nbsp;. Just a&nbsp;&nbsp;carp in a new area can start a new a population.Silver and bighead carp can grow up &nbsp;and weigh over 100 pounds. They can eat up to&nbsp;&nbsp;in&nbsp;&nbsp;in one day, which is why they pose such a big threat to an ecosystem.&nbsp;They were imported to the&nbsp;&nbsp;for aquaculture and were used to control algae in fish farms,&nbsp;but during the they escaped into the Mississippi River and moved north.Just a&nbsp;few carp in a new area can start a new a populationIn 2019, floods inundated 6.5 million acres near the Mississippi River, stretching . The dams on the Mississippi are meant to maintain water flow for commercial navigation; as an unintended effect, they also&nbsp; with hydraulic pressure and gates that make it challenging to swim upstream. During the floods, however, many dams were deluged and at risk of physical damage due to&nbsp;high-pressure conditions. The dams were opened,&nbsp;allowing water — and fish — to flow through.A recently published in the Journal of Freshwater Ecology found that silver carp have an affinity for breeding in flood waters. The researchers examined habitats created by flooding alongside the Mississippi river and captured and identified over 12,000 larval fish, the early developmental stages of fish. Ninety-seven percent of the fish identified were larval silver carp, indicating that not only do the fish move upstream during floods, they can also reproduce prolifically in flooded areas.New populations of silver carp thanks to last year's floods, threatening the Great Lakes. The Mississippi watershed is a flood pulse system, flooding predictably in the spring to early summer and experiencing&nbsp;low water in late summer. There is a window of time where the perfect combination of river flow and spring water temperatures are a “stimulus for reproduction” for carp, warned Andrew Casper, a research biologist at the . The flow allows eggs to stay suspended in the water column so they can develop into larvae. This in turn lets the population increase from a few carp to a cohort that is primed to survive the winter.&nbsp;A that Casper co-authored showed Asian carp have caused a significant&nbsp;&nbsp;over the past 20 years. Silver and bighead carp are planktivores, and these voracious feeders can outcompete like yellow perch and bluegil,l and culinary favorites like catfish. The carp “starves out” other species, eating up their food supply and taking over their breeding grounds.As a part of a long-term monitoring project, the researchers sampled sections of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers in Illinois. They found silver carp populations grew exponentially from 2000 through 2010. It is not yet known what the effects will be in the Great Lakes, but researchers from the Illinois Natural History Survey have found enough evidence to be worried about the ecosystems.The best way to keep carp at bay is to keep them out“Theoretically if carp get in in high numbers, they may have a bigger impact on the Great Lakes, a less productive ecosystem than the Mississippi,” said John Chick, a freshwater ecologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and co-author on the 2019 study as well as the new paper. “We think — we hope — it will be harder for carp to reproduce in the lake itself, because they look for the rise in water. But let’s not take the risk.”, where constant pressures are applied year-round, is considered one of the best management practices to slow the further spread of&nbsp;silver and bighead carp to the Great Lakes. The&nbsp;National Park&nbsp;Service has partnered with local and state agencies to slow the spread of carp and are&nbsp;actively&nbsp;the presence of carp while investigating removal techniques. An&nbsp;&nbsp;was installed in the upper Illinois River&nbsp;in an attempt to prevent the spread of carp to Lake Michigan. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources has also&nbsp;&nbsp;to collect carp with nets to slow their numbers.But ultimately, the best way to keep carp at bay is to . “The best we can do in a lot of situations is protect what we have left,” said Casper. “We don’t want to lose all our native species. Once they’re in, they aren’t coming out."We ask other scientists from our to respond to articles with commentary from their expert perspective.Stories like this send a chill right up my spine. Invasive species are devastating, and oh so hard to get rid of once they’ve arrived. The fact that fishing the carp and putting up electric barriers at the entrance of lakes has been less-than-ideally helpful in this case shows how difficult they are to stop. Where did they originally come from? (I’m assuming from somewhere in Asia from reading the name and article, but I wonder where exactly these destructive fish are native, and what those habitats look like in terms of diversity)?The fish are from Asia and dwell in flood pulse rivers as well, making them well-suited for the Mississippi. I definitely agree with you – the more that is known about how these fish invade, the more effectively scientists and managers can slow the spread.&nbsp;The story of these invasive carp highlights how invasive species aren’t just a problem when they are predatory (eating up native species). Often, they are better at getting resources in the environment than native species, essentially starving them out. Right now, I’m working with fisheries managers in Michigan to understand how native, cool-water-adapted species respond to warming climate. Many of these native species are already vulnerable thanks to the loss of habitat with the appropriate temperature — so, new challenges, like competing with warm-water-tolerant invaders like these carp, could have dire consequences. While I certainly am concerned for the future and how competition from carp will affect fish communities in the Midwest, it’s great that the response has been so serious and so quick. Here’s hoping that these preventive measures are enough!So cool to hear about your work Kelsey in fisheries! Carp tend to out-compete natives as you mentioned, and it will be interesting to see how carp adapt to climate change. Looking forward to hearing more about your work in the future!&nbsp;Nice and interesting article Olivia, definitely invasive species are not good to maintain the natural ecosystem and it is sometimes worst in certain kind of condition like flood. Certainly this unusual conditions give them opportunity to grow exponentially and thus further threaten to the native species. it is not possible to control the natural disasters like flood but I think we should have developed the controlling system for all those invasive species and protect the native species, especially those native species which are less in number and near to extinction. I am not sure if there is any effective way to keep the invasive species out but soon to be taken care off to keep the balanced and natural ecosystem. Thanks for the article anyway!&nbsp;Research is showing it is difficult to keep fish from totally getting into new waters. Once a few come in, they can start a new population and out compete native species quickly. It does seem that mixed management is the best option to slow the spread and manage invasive populations.&nbsp;Lab-grown human cells offer a revolutionary new model for bio-medical research.Fish gas bladders interfere with sonar, and we can use that interference to study Arctic fish stocksFascinating science stories, as told by scientistsWe're a community of scientists telling stories about all the truth and beauty in the universe. Subscribe to get the most interesting, enlightening, and entertaining science writing sent to you.✕ Dismiss✕ Not Interested✓ Already Subscribed

As spring arrives, so do the floods. The National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting intense flooding in the Midwest. The good news is that&nbsp;the floods are predicted to be less severe&nbsp;than those in 2019 that cost the Midwest but&nbsp;they’re still coming — and they may bring in some unwanted visitors.Scientists have long feared the arrival of silver and bighead carp — invasive fish native to Asia — to the Great Lakes. Invasive carp are already found in &nbsp;in the Mississippi River Basin and&nbsp;its&nbsp;tributaries. Another extreme flooding event could...

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Every flood drives destructive Asian carp further into North American waters

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