The resilience of aquatic ecosystems hinges on our ability to protect the native species that reside within them. The river redhorse (Moxostoma carinatum) is one such example and populations have become low enough to warrant a threatened status by the State of Michigan. An insufficient understanding of the species’ habitat use outside of its spawning season hinders the ability of fisheries managers to implement appropriate habitat protection and restoration measures. To enhance our understanding of river redhorse habitat use, we implanted 15 individuals with radio transmitters during the spring spawning run and tracked their locations over the course of a summer. River redhorse movement varied greatly with some individuals remaining within the spawning area throughout the summer and others traveling as far as 50 km down river. Once post-spawn movement ceased, river redhorse established themselves in small home ranges between 0.04 and 0.12 km². We found no obvious selection for depth, sediment type, macrophyte presence, or water velocity. Instead, river redhorse strongly selected for habitat containing freshwater mollusks, the primary food source for the species. This suggests that they were seeking foraging habitat during this time period. These findings provide insight into river redhorse management, indicating that the recovery of the species may depend on our ability to protect these newly discovered feeding areas. Future river redhorse management efforts should therefore focus on the protection of native mussels and snails and the maintenance of migration routes between spawning and summer habitats.

水生生态系统的复原力取决于我们保护居住在其中的本地物种的能力。河红马 ( Moxostoma carinatum) 就是一个这样的例子，人口已经变得足够低，足以保证密歇根州的威胁地位。对该物种在产卵季节之外的栖息地使用了解不足会阻碍渔业管理者实施适当的栖息地保护和恢复措施的能力。为了加深我们对河流红马栖息地使用的了解，我们在春季产卵期间为 15 个人植入了无线电发射器，并在整个夏季跟踪了他们的位置。河流红马的运动变化很大，有些人整个夏天都留在产卵区，而其他人则沿着河流向下移动 50 公里。一旦产卵后运动停止，河流红马就会在 0.04 到 0.12 公里^{2之间的小范围内建立自己的家园}. 我们发现深度、沉积物类型、大型植物的存在或水流速度没有明显的选择。相反，河流红马强烈选择含有淡水软体动物的栖息地，这是该物种的主要食物来源。这表明他们在此期间正在寻找觅食栖息地。这些发现提供了对河流红马管理的深入了解，表明该物种的恢复可能取决于我们保护这些新发现的觅食区的能力。因此，未来的河流红马管理工作应侧重于保护本地贻贝和蜗牛以及维护产卵和夏季栖息地之间的迁徙路线。