Pelagic broadcast spawning cyprinids are a mobile group of fishes commonly found within semi-arid areas of the Great Plains of North America. In several species, upstream movements of 50 to 200 km have been reported and associated with reproductive migration. Long distance migrations also are associated with finding food and refuge. Goals of this study were to detect synchronous movement of Prairie Chub at specific life stages and relate movement to functions associated with migration (i.e., reproduction, feeding, and refuge). Movement was inferred by quantifying monthly occurrences of age groups using length frequency distributions among five sites in two rivers and supported with range-wide assessment of genetic structuring. Monthly occurrences of age groups among sites were related to reproductive season (i.e., gonadosomatic indices, ovarian condition) for assessing reproductive migration, to food consumption (i.e., gut content assessments) for assessing feeding migration, and to habitat associations (e.g., specific conductance) for assessing refuge migration. Spatial and temporal patterns in age-0, age-1 and age-2 fish occurrences and abundances suggested movement within only one river. Non-synchronized movements were more consistently associated with specific conductance following a high flow event, which was more consistent with a refuge function than reproductive season or food consumption. Our findings suggest that Prairie Chubs are capable of moving long distances, but movement was inconsistently associated with reproductive efforts as previously described. Without synchronized movements, we question whether movement is migration or dispersal and provide a contrasting narrative to the drift compensation theory used to describe broadcast spawning cyprinid migrations.

中文翻译：

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评估大平原特有鱼类的运动功能

远洋广播产卵鲤科鱼类是北美大平原半干旱地区常见的一类移动鱼类。在几个物种中，已经报告了 50 到 200 公里的上游移动，并与生殖迁移有关。长途迁徙也与寻找食物和避难所有关。本研究的目标是检测草原鲢在特定生命阶段的同步运动，并将运动与迁移相关的功能（即繁殖、进食和避难）联系起来。通过使用两条河流中五个站点之间的长度频率分布量化年龄组的每月发生次数来推断运动，并支持对遗传结构的范围广泛的评估。站点中年龄组的每月发生次数与生殖季节有关（即性腺指标、卵巢状况）用于评估生殖迁移，食物消耗（即肠道内容评估）用于评估摄食迁移，以及栖息地关联（例如，特定电导）用于评估避难所迁移。0 岁、1 岁和 2 岁鱼类出现和丰度的时空模式表明仅在一条河流内移动。非同步运动更一致地与高流量事件后的特定电导相关，这比生殖季节或食物消耗更符合避难功能。我们的研究结果表明，草原鲢鱼能够长距离移动，但如前所述，移动与繁殖努力不一致。没有同步动作，