Lake level fluctuations, either men made or natural, are one of the major environmental perturbations in any eulittoral community. In outdoor mesocosm experiments, we test changes in the behaviour and the hierarchical order in two littoral benthic dwellers, juvenile burbot and stone loach under decreasing shelter availability, simulated autumn lake level decrease in large lakes. Recent results show, that the two species show a significantly different behaviour when confronted with decreasing shelter availability. Burbot exhibited a distinct hierarchical order with decreasing shelter availability with larger fish being significantly more successful to compete for their preferred shelter compared to smaller conspecifics. Stone loach in contrast did not show any apparent hierarchical order at all and also no size related shelter use. However, both species showed a significant relationship between their ability to compete for their preferred shelter in a group of conspecifics and their somatic growth rate. In juvenile burbot, a breakdown of the primarily established hierarchical order was found at the end of the experiment when shelter availability continuously increased. Then, the largest fish of a group started to abandon shelter use at progressive rate while the smaller fish did not show this behaviour. The results indicate two entirely different behavioural strategies to deal with dynamic habitat and environmental perturbations in this two species and demonstrates the importance to conduct behavioural studies not only under strictly controlled and temporally stable conditions but under changing environments which reflects in situ conditions in natural ecosystems as close as experimental constrains allow. The ongoing research in this project now focus on the effects of seasonal water level fluctuation not only on the individual specimen but on the entire lake population.
Verbundprojekt zur Abschaetzung der Belastung kleiner Fliessgewaesser mit Umweltchemikalien anhand von Biomarkern. Ziel ist es, die verschiedenen Biomarker gegeneinander sowie gegen chemische Daten zu validieren. Es werden nach Abschluss des Projektes Aussagen zur oekologischen Relevanz der Biomarkerantworten moeglich sein. Die Untersuchungen werden an zwei Modellbaechen in Sueddeutschland im Halbfreiland und Freiland mit Bachforellen und Bachschmerlen durchgefuehrt. Zusaetzlich sind Laborversuche integriert. Der Verbund besteht aus 7 Teilnehmern ueber Deutschland verteilt. Die Resultate des ersten Expositionsjahres (1995) sind in einem Zwischenbericht zusammengefasst. Die Baeche sind chemisch charakterisiert (Wasser, Sediment, Klaeranlagenausfluesse), und in Fischproben wurden Chemikaldosen bestimmt. Die Biomarkerantworten zeigen staerkere Reaktionen am staerker belasteten Bach (staerkere Pathologien, erhoehte Enzymaktivitaeten/Beeintraechtigung von Enzymaktivitaeten, Stressproteine, Embryotoxizitaet). Parallel zu Biomarkertests werden Leuchtbakterientests und Untersuchungen an Fischzellkulturen durchgefuehrt. Die Resultate aus biologischen und chemischen Untersuchungen werden ueber mathematische Methoden miteinander in Verbindung gebracht und schliesslich in ein Modell integriert.