A pup’s life: Pupfish growth, reproduction, and movement in a hypervariable environment

Authors: Alexander C. Jones, Joseph R. Hunt, Chalisa Pansin, Maja Aleksic, Olivia Chamnong, Shalini R. Dalpatadu, Stanley Hillyard, Frank. Breukelen

Year: 2016 (xlviii)

Abstract

Salt Creek, located in Death Valley National Park, is among the most extreme environments fish are known to inhabit. Depending on spatial location and season, temperatures in Salt Creek range from 0’C to over 40’C. Thus many have assumed that Salt Creek Pupfish are well adapted to temperatures as high as 40’C based mainly on anecdotal observations. However, it is not known whether the pupfish observed in the areas of the creek that reach such temperatures survive. We conducted a mark-recapture study to determine whether fish that are marked in the warmer, ephemeral habitats at Salt Creek move to permanent, cooler hab itats as the creek dries. The number of fish recaptured from the ephemeral portions of the creek decreased markedly as the summer progressed. However, fish in the ephemeral portions of the creek grew faster and benefited from an earlier breeding season. T hese data indicate that there are both costs and benefits for fish which colonize ephemeral habitats at Salt Creek.