![]() This summer, Schmitz continued the experiments based on lessons the team learned from last summer’s pilot study. Noel Schmitz, Gray Lab and Pintor Lab graduate student, left, and Suzanne Gray, associate professor of aquatic physiological ecology at The Ohio State University, right, inspect smallmouth bass held in large tanks at Stone Lab’s Mesocosm Facility. How long did it take the bass to strike at the goby? Was it a successful strike, meaning did it catch and then eat the goby, or did the goby flee and hide?” “A lot of the observations are based on timing. “We’re looking at things like, how quickly did the bass orient toward the goby? How quickly did the goby seem to notice the bass?” Gray explained. They tagged smallmouth bass with microchips and used cameras to track how bass and gobies interact in tanks. Researchers monitored fish interactions under warm and cool water temperatures as well as high and low oxygen levels. “I want to understand, ‘What does this fish do?’ and then together we’re thinking about ‘If the predator does one thing, what does the prey do?’”Įxperiments for the pilot study, led by graduate student Noel Schmitz, began last summer at Stone Laboratory. “We’re working in a really complimentary way,” Gray said. Gray’s research focuses on fish at the individual level, while Pintor generally studies fish populations and communities. To understand the dynamics between the two fish, Gray and Pintor worked together to combine their expertise. “What’s interesting is that the bass have switched their diet to 80% to 90% gobies. “They really came in and their population exploded in a classic kind of invasion,” Gray said. Round gobies, on the other hand, are an invasive bottom-dwelling fish from Eurasia that entered Lake Erie in 1994. Smallmouth bass, native to Ohio, are an important sport fish for anglers in the state. The relationship between the two fish is relatively new. When a predator like a smallmouth bass is nearby, they tend to freeze in place and then flee if the bass gets too close for comfort. Round gobies are invasive bottom dwellers that hide under rocks for protection from predators. ![]() “So then, what does that look like when you have the interplay between a predator and a prey?” “These stressors are going to influence an individual fish’s ability to respond,” said Gray. Lauren Pintor, associate professor of aquatic ecology at Ohio State, hope to discover the answers in their Ohio Sea Grant-funded pilot study on two species of Lake Erie fish, smallmouth bass and the invasive round goby. What’s unknown, however, is how these climate change “stressors” like increased temperature and hypoxia impact the relationships between fish, such as between predators and their prey. Scientists know about these phenomena alongside climate change models that predict an increase in Lake Erie surface temperatures by 3 to 4 degrees Celsius or more in the next 50 years. With Stone Lab’s mesocosm facility, their team studied how higher temperatures, more turbidity and less oxygen could affect the growth and health of smallmouth bass. Ohio Sea Grant researchers Suzanne Gray and Lauren Pintor are looking at how one of Lake Erie’s key fish will be affected by a changing climate. “So the fish have this sort of trade-off of needing more food and needing to be more active because of the higher temperatures but then also needing more oxygen for those metabolic processes when there’s less oxygen available,” said Suzanne Gray, associate director of academic programming and research at The Ohio State University’s Stone Laboratory and associate professor of aquatic physiological ecology at College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences School of Environment and Natural Resources. Under hypoxic - or low oxygen - conditions, fish have trouble maintaining basic bodily functions and may decrease activity. Temperature also has a direct relationship with the oxygen in the water: As the temperature goes up, dissolved oxygen levels go down. As water heats up, fish metabolism increases, causing fish to work faster and use up more energy. Fish are ectotherms, meaning that their body temperature is dictated by the water they live in. ![]() Others might not even notice a difference.īut for fish living in Lake Erie, such a temperature increase in water could spell disaster. Some people might peel off a layer of clothing. For humans, if the temperature rises by a few degrees, the immediate impact is minimal.
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