The University of Missouri and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) have teamed up to conduct a study that may help officials better control the spread of carp species across the country.
Armed with a USD 200,000 (EUR 167,545) grant from the USGS Aquatic Invasive Species Competitive Grants Program, the researchers are looking into how river flows affect the spread of bighead, black, grass, and silver carp. The money will be used to build a three-dimensional model to determine the roles currents and turbulence play in the dissemination of those species.
“These carp can live in lakes and other bodies of water, but only spawn, or reproduce, in rivers,” Duane Chapman, a USGS fish biologist and a co-investigator on the grant, said in a University of Missouri news release. “We hope this new model will be able to improve our ability to forecast where the ideal or non-ideal locations are for the survival of carp offspring.”
Carp species were introduced into the U.S. in the 1970s to help with algae blooms at fish farms and other contained facilities. Flooding events helped them escape into waterways in the Midwest and Southeast.
As an invasive species, carp beat out native species for essential resources and as a result can damage ecosystems. That can also have a profound impact on economies, too.
Binbin Wang, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Missouri, said current water-flow models use one or two dimensions.
“River flows are highly three-dimensional in nature,” Wang said in the release. “For this particular project, we are looking at various intensities of turbulent water flow. Turbulence is essentially highly organized chaotic motion. River turbulence is also critical in spreading out the eggs of invasive carp.”
Researchers hope to learn how to use water flows to keep the carp species from spreading into the Great Lakes and other waterways.
Testing of the three-dimensional models should wrap up by 2023. The research team will conduct a field test along a stretch of the Lower Missouri River, which they say has features similar to the Mississippi River and other large rivers.
Containing the carp isn’t the only goal of the project.
“Also, while we are primarily focused on this invasive species, we also believe that this model, with some modifications, has the potential to help with predicting the survival of other fish species, such as the endangered pallid sturgeon,” Chapman said.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey
