{"id":8580,"date":"2010-11-05T05:18:15","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T10:18:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utnews.utoledo.edu\/?p=8580"},"modified":"2010-11-03T14:51:04","modified_gmt":"2010-11-03T19:51:04","slug":"students-discover-state-listed-fish-in-ottawa-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/11_05_2010\/students-discover-state-listed-fish-in-ottawa-river","title":{"rendered":"Students discover state-listed fish in Ottawa River"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Students<\/a>

Students in the ecology lab class sampled the Ottawa River on Main Campus for fish. More than 40 species of fish make their home on campus.<\/p><\/div>Students in an ecology class at The University of Toledo discovered a fish has made its way back to our part of the Ottawa River.<\/p>\n

During a student field study for the general ecology lab course, students worked at catching and identifying the 40 species of fish known to live in the river, but they also discovered a new species to the area \u2014 the least darter.<\/p>\n

The least darter (Estheostoma microperca)<\/em> is a rather small brown and orange fish. An adult male will reach 4 centimeters in length. The fish typically lives in sandy headwaters and was at one time abundant in the area, according to Todd Crail, a doctoral student in the Department of Environmental Sciences and lab instructor for the course. However, it now is listed as a species of concern in Ohio as it becomes threatened by human alteration and pollution. It has been absent from the lower Ottawa River since the 1940s. <\/p>\n

\"UT<\/a>

UT graduate student Todd Crail took this photo of the least darter, adult male, in spawning colors.<\/p><\/div>Crail believes the fish moved back downstream toward campus after the dams upstream were removed at Secor Road and Camp Miakonda.<\/p>\n

\u201cRemoving those dams restored the downstream flow of sand and gravel, which creates new habitat for these fish,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Some people think the river is polluted beyond use, but the students learned the reality is quite the contrary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was surprised to find that trash and other human products still left room for habitat for all these species of fish,\u201d said Colleen Nagel, a junior majoring in environmental sciences. \u201cI just wish more people would realize that these fish live on campus, too!\u201d<\/p>\n

To get a significant contribution to the study of Ohio\u2019s fish in a stretch of river that people walk across daily was \u201cicing on the cake,\u201d Crail said. <\/p>\n

The students in the course will continue to monitor the least darter and study its progress in its new habitat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students taking an ecology class conducted a field study in the Ottawa River and discovered the least darter, a fish that used to swim area waterways, has returned. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,7],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.utoledo.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}