Preserving an Endemic Species

The southeastern United States is known for its rich biodiversity—from amphibians to plants to fish. However, species extinctions decrease diversity which affects the entire ecosystem and, in the case of fish, the aquatic ecosystem. In the Savannah River Basin, which includes the lakes and rivers from Lake Jocasse to Lake Thurmond in South Carolina, a healthy aquatic ecosystem is important for water and recreation. The Native Bass Conservation Creative Inquiry project, led by Dr. Brandon Peoples and graduate students Caroline Cox and Tyler Zumwalt, from the Department of Forestry and Environmental Conservation, is investigating the life history of an imperiled, endemic bass of this basin. Bartram’s redeye bass, Micropterus sp. cf cataractae, lives only in the Savannah River basin in South Carolina and Georgia. Due to habitat loss and genetic deterioration from hybridization with the introduced Alabama bass, Bartram’s bass are in danger.

Understanding the distribution of Bartram’s bass, the water bodies they inhabit, and factors that affect hybridization and breeding with other species will contribute to the conservation of the bass. Cox guides the Creative Inquiry team to determine the distribution of Bartram’s bass. The team fishes for bass in locations such as the Chattooga River and identifies each individual caught and, if it is a Bartram’s bass, whether it is a pure or hybrid specimen. “I really like working with the undergraduates and seeing their excitement about catching a bass. It’s an honor being able to offer them advice because I was where they were at one point,” Cox said.

The team also works with Zumwalt on a bass movement project. To map fish movement, the students catch bass and tag them. Small fish are tagged with a Passive Integrated Transponder tag (PIT-tag) similar to microchips used to locate lost pets. Larger fish are equipped with radio tags that enabled the team to use radiotelemetry to track fish. After tagged fish are returned to the water, subsequent collection trips involve scanning small caught fish with a PIT-tag reader and using a radio telemetry receiver for the big fish.

The team’s results are important for the conservation of Bartram’s bass as well as to aquatic biodiversity. Understanding all the factors that affect biodiversity in aquatic systems is important. “There is an incredible diversity of aquatic life right here under our nose. Streams that flow through Clemson’s city parks and even through the golf course contain fish that are just as necessary to the ecosystem as any fish one would find in the coral reef. There are a lot of really interesting species out there, and many of them are in deep trouble. Considering many of them have restricted ranges, if we lose them here, we lose them everywhere and forever,” Peoples emphasized.