>Again, I will ask, how else could the fish get there? From my >knowledge of
>the area, floods and artificial placement are not >possible. The appearance
>of the fish is an _annual_ event. The only >other way the fish could get
>there is if eggs were able to survive >in dry conditions for several
>months.
>Is _that_ possible?
Maybe. It would be easy enough to test experimentally...
Alternatively, if there's even one little puddle of wet mud out there under
a clump of Juncus, killie eggs or adults could probably make it.
As an example... Zekiah Swamp, on the Coastal Plain of Maryland, dried up
almost entirely in August 1995. We happened to be down there sampling, and
took advantage of the dry river channel to sample isolated pools. It was
amazing- you would walk 200-300m, find one little puddle of wet mud, and it
would be PACKED with fish. Dissolved oxygen levels in most of these pools
were approaching 0. A MAJOR mussel-kill followed- we picked up a lot of
fresh Elliptio complanata and fisheriana valves... we sampled it in October,
after rains that brought levels back up to normal, and even though densities
were low, fish diversity was equal to the pre-drought level. These were
adults that made it through, not eggs.
Another neat thing to do, if you are doing any mist netting for bird
banding, why not wash the little chicken's toes into a sterile basin (with
autoclaved pond water) and see what grows...? ;)
Cheers,
Dave
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