Are aquatic organisms transported by waterfowl?

[MoCarp]

Interesting read......

 

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Is_there_scientific_proof_that_water_fowl_can_transport_fish_eggs_from_one_water_body_to_an_other

[BilletHead]

    Interesting read and thank you for the link. Four years old and out of Europe. Only possible proof is that the waterfowl are given eggs to eat and viable eggs passed? Right there they also talk of turtles, tornados and waterspouts doing the same thing. As many waterfowl as we have here in North America and where they go if this is true there would be no body of water without every species of fish native or non native in it. Wonder if a north American scientist has proven this?  

  BilletHead 

[tjm]

Guy asks a question, bunch folks said "I don't know", same guy supplies a "translation" of a paper by an unknown student and some people said "oh, yeah, maybe, I think it's possible" ; is this the link or did my computer screw up?

If they had any kind of study going on all those university people from all over the world couldn't find it, and the supposed translation alluded to two or three previous such studies that again no one else is aware of?

Thanks, but I was expecting something more real.

[MoCarp]

2 hours ago, BilletHead said:

    Interesting read and thank you for the link. Four years old and out of Europe. Only possible proof is that the waterfowl are given eggs to eat and viable eggs passed? Right there they also talk of turtles, tornados and waterspouts doing the same thing. As many waterfowl as we have here in North America and where they go if this is true there would be no body of water without every species of fish native or non native in it. Wonder if a north American scientist has proven this?  

  BilletHead 

 

13 minutes ago, tjm said:

Guy asks a question, bunch folks said "I don't know", same guy supplies a "translation" of a paper by an unknown student and some people said "oh, yeah, maybe, I think it's possible" ; is this the link or did my computer screw up?

If they had any kind of study going on all those university people from all over the world couldn't find it, and the supposed translation alluded to two or three previous such studies that again no one else is aware of?

Thanks, but I was expecting something more real.

Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Arizona State University, George Mason University are not in Europe and the last post on that thread was 8 months ago...there are scientists from all over the world on this thread alone and this site is well respected....there are several studies listed dry reading, but peer reviewed none the less

 

."Skimming through any scientific literature is exactly why some people flunk out or at best get a lower grade" I can still hear that being said in my 1st Biology class,

I was disappointed when I only received a high B...the professor consoled my concerns ( he knew I was a bio major ) the bulk of the class had scores in the single digits to low 20s........

I have spent a while studying these types of fisheries related subjects..and still keep up and respect those in academia, poo poo it if you will but the evidence is there...IMHO remote waters get inoculated via water fowl..but the bulk hitchhikers on water craft and water retained on watercraft and trailers

it should be noted common carp feed heavily on zebra mussels where both occur together...I feel going forward we will deal with them in fresh water just like they deal with barnacles in salt/brackish water...

 

 

Quote

 Spencer and Patchett  (1997) call on bird-mediated transport of mollusks to explain marine/estuarine species in what they infer to be ~5 Myr non-marine deposits (references therein on page 774 may be of service).

 

[Guest]

Deleted.

[MoCarp]

35 minutes ago, siusaluki said:

Until I moved to Purdue a few weeks ago, I managed a research facility containing 90 ponds and a 6.5 acre reservoir for over nine years. 

You Teach @ Purdue now?????

 

36 minutes ago, siusaluki said:

I would fill them and and allow duckweed to grow to help waterfowl. 

I always wonder how duckweed got started in a pond.......

 

37 minutes ago, siusaluki said:

There wasn't a single time that those ponds had fish transferred into them. The only time that these ponds would ever get fish in them was if I left the inlet sock screen off, and every single one of those ponds would end up with bluegills, crappies, and bass by being pumped up from the water storage reservoir.  

I believe you, I would expect the folklore is mostly that....yet for something like that to happen would have to meet certain requirements, timing for an example...just because it never seemed to happen "unless you forgot the exclusion sock" at your location doesn't mean its impossible, many times organism end up in waters seemingly impossible for man to have put them there on purpose or by accident via hitchhiking...more is going on....and folklore is based on something

 

47 minutes ago, siusaluki said:

So in my experience, birds do not crap out viable fish eggs...

below is an example perhaps some research $ could be had exploring waterfowl vector possabilities

 

Abstract

Aim

Patterns of high biodiversity among less mobile organisms throughout isolated locations suggest that passive dispersal importantly contributes to biodiversity. We examined the contribution of waterbirds to the dispersal of plant seeds and macroinvertebrates between aquatic wetlands. Birds are renowned vectors for seeds of terrestrial plants, but less is known about their role in more dispersal-dependent aquatic systems. We therefore performed a meta-analysis on bird-mediated endozoochorous dispersal of aquatic species.

Location

Our review included studies that collected data world-wide.

Methods

We analysed data from 81 peer-reviewed publications on endozoochorous dispersal of aquatic plant seeds and macroinvertebrates by waterbirds.

Results

In total, 36% of 1581 waterbird droppings collected in the field contained one or more intact propagules, with macroinvertebrates found almost as frequently as plant seeds. Positive droppings contained on average 3.3 intact propagules, of which one-third were viable. In 728 trials from 17 published feeding experiments 24% of the ingested propagules were retrieved intact, with c. 6.5% both viable and intact. As many as 17 species of Anatidae and Rallidae were involved in the dispersal of at least 39 species of macroinvertebrates and seeds from 97 species of plants across a wide taxonomic range. Smaller propagules seemed less affected by digestion than larger ones. We provide a first quantitative model that can be used to estimate waterbird-mediated dispersal of propagules between wetlands. This model indicates that an average waterbird has the potential to disperse five viable propagules after flying more than 100 km, and one additional propagule after flying 300 km.

Main conclusions

We demonstrate that waterbirds have the potential to transport a wide variety of aquatic plants and animals over several hundreds of kilometres. High survival of propagules might be explained by propagule adaptations or by the digestive adaptations of birds, whereby energy absorption is thought to be maximized rather than assimilation efficiency. Our meta-analysis suggests that waterbirds might contribute significantly to wetland biodiversity around the world, despite several limitations to our current knowledge. We outline avenues for future research to address these knowledge gaps.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12004/abstract

[SpoonDog]

I don't understand why it matters.  I can't control who gets a flu vaccine- doesn't mean I shouldn't get a flu vaccine.  I can't control what's on a duck's butt, but I can control what's in or on my boat, motor, trailer, fishing gear, wading boots, etc. 

Knowing waterfowl can transport critters is a neat bit of trivia, but unless you're going to diaper every duck, goose and coot on the continent, it has pretty limited management implications.  There's nothing you can really do about it. 

[Quillback]

Duck diapers to stop the spread of invasive species...hmmmmm...could be a market out there.

[FelGirl87]

I saw this thread and thought that this could explain why milfoil gets scattered everywhere

[tjm]

5 hours ago, MoCarp said:

suggests that waterbirds might contribute significantly to wetland biodiversity around the world, despite several limitations to our current knowledge.

Good summation, and I fully agree. Might.

As to whether it is worth more $$ in research, I wouldn't guess that all the birds in the world contribute much to the invasives being introduced into a flyway, redistribution within a flyway is quite possible even if it is not proven. Yet one boat can move many times more of them  intact propagules than a whole flock of geese, and it isn't just a theory that boats do move invasives far beyond any regional borders such as migration routes. And as mentioned above, the  ability of birds to poop live zebras can't be controlled , but man's contribution can be. 

Sure I'd like to know if eagles could stock mountain lakes with German trout as a future feeding area for their unhatched youngins, but there may be research of higher priority to fund first. 

I am a bit surprised that the percentage of viable propagules appears to be that high, although I have heard that a goose will pass raw bacon intact. But then I'm not sure anything stays inside a goose long enough for transport more than a few yards.