Threadfin shad impingement: effect of cold stress on a reservoir community. Environmental Sciences Division Publication No. 1198

Technical Report · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:6310876

McLean, R B; Griffith, J S; McGee, M V; Pasch, R

Biological and physical parameters influencing impingement rates of threadfin shad (Dorosoma pentenense) during October 1976--April 1977 at Kingston Steam Plant on Watts Bar Reservoir, Tennessee were identified and some ecological consequences of that impingement were assessed. Threadfin were found to comprise 97% of the 254,000 fish impinged, with about 25% of threadfin impingement occurring within 48 hr of a single one-day temperature decline from 8/sup 0/ to 3/sup 0/C. Total threadfin impingement (2,391 kg) represents the equivalent standing crop of 328 cove hectares of the 15,783 hectare reservoir. These losses may have some effect on trophic dynamics in a normal year. Threadfin comprised 100% of the diet of sauger (a threadfin predator) from November 1976 to February 1977, at which time all threadfin disappeared due to a natural cold kill except for a remnant in the power plant discharge. Alternate prey were utilized to a limited extent during March and April. Digestion by sauger was significantly reduced at 5/sup 0/ and 10/sup 0/C compared to that at 15/sup 0/C but prey could still have been utilized if they had been available. The normal food web pathways were thus disrupted by the cold shock. Therefore, impingement in Watts Bar Reservoir during normal winters may be of some ecological consequence, but during severe winters environmentally-caused mortality may override effects of impingement mortality.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 6310876
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CR-0637; ORNL/NUREG/TM-231
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
AUXILIARY SYSTEMS
AUXILIARY WATER SYSTEMS
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
CONDENSER COOLING SYSTEMS
COOLING SYSTEMS
DATA
DATA FORMS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FISHES
GRAPHS
IMPINGEMENT
INFORMATION
INTAKE STRUCTURES
ISOLATED VALUES
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
MORTALITY
NUMERICAL DATA
POPULATION DYNAMICS
POWER PLANTS
SURFACE WATERS
TEMPERATURE DEPENDENCE
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
VERTEBRATES
WATER RESERVOIRS