High salinity tolerance of the invasive round goby in freshwater populations
Ann Arbor, MI — The round goby is a Eurasian fish that invaded the Great Lakes in ~1990 through ballast water discharge. Its invasion was genetically traced to the Black Sea, a brackish inland sea with a wide salinity range to 22 parts per thousand (ppt). The tolerance, growth rates, and respiration rates of Lake Erie round goby population to various salinities was experimentally determined.
Great Lakes’ round gobies can tolerate salinities up to 25 ppt for three days and up to 20 ppt for four months. Growth is enhanced at intermediate salinities, at which respiration rate also appears lower. Because the invasive round goby tolerates salinities up to 25 ppt, ballast water change must be complete (reaching 30 ppt) in order to control its spread.
Original Publication Information
Results of this study, "Salinity Tolerance of the Invasive Round Goby: Experimental Implications for Seawater Ballast Exchange and Spread to North American Estuaries," are reported by Susanne I. Karsiotis, Lindsey R. Pierce, Joshua E. Brown and Carol A. Stepien in Volume 38, No. 1, of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by Elsevier, 2012.
Contacts
For more information about the study, contact Carol A. Stepien, The Great Lakes Genetics Laboratory, Lake Erie Center and the Department of Environmental Sciences, The University of Toledo, 6200 Bayshore Road, Toledo, OH 43616, USA, Carol.Stepien@utoledo.edu; (306) 975-5310.
For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; jglr@ec.gc.ca; (306) 975-5310.
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