| Virgin spinedace | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Cypriniformes |
| Family: | Cyprinidae |
| Subfamily: | Leuciscinae |
| Genus: | Lepidomeda |
| Species: | L. mollispinis |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepidomeda mollispinis R. R. Miller & C. L. Hubbs, 1960 | |
The Virgin spinedace (Lepidomeda mollispinis) is a cyprinid fish of the Virgin River, a tributary of the Colorado River in the United States.
This spinedace is overall silvery in color, with a brassy sheen and a pattern of sooty blotches or speckles on each side. The dorsal fin has eight rays, the first two of which are spiny, the second being longer than the one closer to the frontal area. [2] The anal fin has eight to 10 rays, usually 9. The breeding male is more brightly colored, developing a band on the anal fin, orange to red shades on the paired fins, and a spot of red or gold color at the top of the gill slit. The Virgin spinedace adult is generally 6 to 12 centimetres (2.4 to 4.7 in) in total length. [3] The mouth is less oblique than that of L. vittata . The dorsal fin is lower and rounded, and its depressed length is 5.6 to 6.1 centimetres (2.2 to 2.4 in). [4] The Virgin Spinedace is omnivorous, with a diet of primarily aquatic insects, [5] of note the larvae of Euparyphus and Hydropsyche. [6]
The Virgin spinedace habitat is clear water about 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) deep, preferably close to cover, such as overhanging shrubs or banks, near vegetation, and over sand or gravel. The fish prefers slow water in areas that do not experience heavy flooding. The fish can tolerate water temperatures of 29 °C (84 °F) or higher, a useful ability in the summer when the river becomes intermittent and the fish must crowd into isolated pools. [2] They prefer clear, cool, relatively swift streams with scattered pools, [4] and often will use shear zones between low and high current velocities. [7]
Populations are known throughout major tributaries of the Virgin River in Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, including the North Fork and East Fork of the Virgin River, Shunes Creek, North Creek, Ash Creek, La Verkin Creek, Leeds Creek, Quail Creek, Moody Wash, Magotsu Creek, the Santa Clara River, and Beaver Dam Wash.
By 1994, threats to the species reduced Virgin Spinedace populations to approximately 60% of their historic distribution. As a result of these threats, the Virgin Spinedace was proposed for listing in 1994 as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Virgin Spinedace Conservation Agreement and Strategy (VSCAS) was developed in 1995 in accordance with the ESA to improve conditions resulting in the decline of Virgin Spinedace, enhance habitat, and re-establish locally extirpated populations throughout the Virgin River basin. When implemented, management actions outlined in the VSCAS would alleviate factors warranting listing under the ESA. The primary goal of the VSCAS is to increase the range of the species from 60% to at least 80% (~ 185 kilometres (115 mi)) of its historically occupied habitat. The Virgin Spinedace Conservation Agreement and Strategy has been an effective vehicle for the conservation and recovery of Virgin Spinedace. Local, State, and Federal partners have reversed the decline in Virgin Spinedace abundance and distribution through implementation of the VSCAS.
Prior to the development of the VSCAS, Virgin Spinedace populations were declining throughout the Virgin River basin. The VSCAS has succeeded in developing cooperative partnerships to implement Virgin Spinedace recovery. The VSCAS has been an extremely effective, flexible, and powerful management tool for implementation of conservation actions to benefit Virgin Spinedace. Implementation of the VSCAS has succeeded in re-establishing previously extirpated populations of Virgin Spinedace. Conservation efforts have increased current (2020) Virgin Spinedace distribution by 71.7 kilometres (44.6 mi) above baseline 1995 occupied habitat (at the conception of the VSCAS). Areas identified and targeted under the VSCAS included: mainstem Virgin River below Quail Creek Diversion, Santa Clara River below Gunlock Reservoir, Beaver Dam Wash, and Quail and Leeds creeks. Increased Virgin Spinedace distribution has occurred at all VSCAS targeted locations; mainstem Virgin River below QCD (4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi)), Santa Clara River below Gunlock Reservoir (27.7 kilometres (17.2 mi)), Beaver Dam Wash below Schroeder Reservoir (11.8 kilometres (7.3 mi)), and Quail (1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi)) and Leeds (1.9 kilometres (1.2 mi)) creeks. Additional increases occurred on several stream reaches throughout the basin. The only loss of baseline occupied historic habitat in the 1995 VSCAS occurred in lower Ash Creek (3.3 kilometres (2.1 mi)); however conservation efforts restored Virgin Spinedace to 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi) of habitat in upper Ash Creek that was not occupied in 1995. Virgin Spinedace currently occupy an additional 10.0 km (6.2 mi) of “above baseline” distribution habitat since the 1995 VSCAS. Above baseline distribution is habitat currently occupied by Virgin Spinedace but not identified as historic habitat in the 1995 VSCAS due to, omission, lack of previous records, or expansion from conservation efforts (North Creek). Virgin Spinedace have also naturally re-colonized portions of baseline occupied habitat following basin wide improvements in habitat, flow, and water quality conditions under the VSCAS. Virgin Spinedace currently occupy additional habitat in Moody Wash (3.1 kilometres (1.9 mi)), Racer Canyon (1.0 kilometre (0.62 mi)), La Verkin Creek (4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi)), and upper North Creek (1.6 kilometres (0.99 mi)). The primary goal of the VSCAS is to increase the range of Virgin Spinedace from approximately 60% to at least 80% of historically occupied habitat. Virgin Spinedace currently occupy 90.6% of historic habitat. This expansion has occurred despite periods of extreme drought, wildfires, and flooding that have negatively impacted Virgin Spinedace during the 25 years the VSCAS has been in place. Furthermore, Virgin Spinedace have expanded their distribution in an additional 10.0 kilometres (6.2 mi) of area above baseline occupied habitat. Self-sustaining Virgin Spinedace populations currently occur in 222.2 kilometres (138.1 mi) of stream across the Virgin River basin.
The major factors affecting Virgin spinedace are water development, habitat degradation, and invasive species competition.
Management emphasizes implementation of the VSCAS. Primary goals of the VSCAS include the restoration of population maintenance flows to re-establish viable Virgin Spinedace populations in dewatered or depleted stream reaches. Additional actions identified in the VSCAS include restoring habitat and populations, removal and control of non-native species, increasing habitat connectivity, and maintaining genetic viability. Virgin Spinedace population monitoring was identified by the VSCAS to track the status of Virgin Spinedace populations and their response to implemented conservation actions.
Washington County is a county in the southwestern corner of Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 180,279, making it the fifth-most populous county in Utah. Its county seat and largest city is St. George. The county was created in 1852 and organized in 1856. It was named after the first President of the United States, George Washington. A portion of the Paiute Indian Reservation is in western Washington County. Washington County comprises the St. George, UT Metropolitan Statistical Area.
La Verkin is a city in Washington County, Utah, United States. The population was 4,060 as of 2010, an increase from 3,392 in 2000. La Verkin is within walking distance of Hurricane, and the two cities have historically had close ties.
The Great Basin Desert is part of the Great Basin between the Sierra Nevada and the Wasatch Range. The desert is a geographical region that largely overlaps the Great Basin shrub steppe defined by the World Wildlife Fund, and the Central Basin and Range ecoregion defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and United States Geological Survey. It is a temperate desert with hot, dry summers and snowy winters. The desert spans large portions of Nevada and Utah, and extends into eastern California. The desert is one of the four biologically defined deserts in North America, in addition to the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts.
The Virgin River is a tributary of the Colorado River in the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, and Arizona. The river is about 162 miles (261 km) long. It was designated Utah's first wild and scenic river in 2009, during the centennial celebration of Zion National Park.
The White River is a small and discontinuous 138-mile-long (222 km) river located in southeastern Nevada notable for several endemic species of fish. The river was named for F. A. White, a 19th-century explorer.
The Price River is a 137-mile-long (220 km) southeastward flowing river in Carbon, Utah and Emery counties in eastern Utah. It is a tributary to the Green River, itself a tributary to the Colorado River.
Lahontan cutthroat trout is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout, and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened.
The roundtail chub is a cyprinid fish in the genus Gila, of southwestern North America. It is native to the Colorado River drainage basin, including the Gila River and other tributaries, and in several other rivers. It is part of the “robusta complex”, which includes the Gila robusta robusta, G.r. grahami, and G.r. seminuda.
The Colorado River cutthroat trout is a subspecies of cutthroat trout native only to the Green and Colorado River basins, which are west of the Continental Divide. Cutthroat trout found in other river basins belong to other subspecies.
The woundfin is a species of minnow endemic to the Virgin River of the southwestern United States. It is the only species in the monotypic genus Plagopterus.
The northern leatherside chub is a cyprinid fish of western North America.
The Railroad Valley springfish, Crenichthys nevadae, is a rare goodeid fish of the Great Basin of western United States, occurring naturally in just seven thermal springs of Railroad Valley in Nye County, Nevada.
The humpback chub is a federally protected fish that lived originally in fast waters of the Colorado River system in the United States. This species takes its name from the prominent hump between the head and dorsal fin, which is thought to direct the flow of water over the body and help maintain body position in the swift currents of the Colorado river. The body is almost entirely scaleless, retaining only about 80 mid-lateral scales along the lateral line. The fish is very streamlined, with a thin caudal peduncle and a deeply forked tail. The back is a light olive gray, the sides silver, and the belly white. The dorsal fin usually has nine rays, and the anal fin 10 or more. Maximum recorded length is 38 cm.
The Colorado pikeminnow is the largest cyprinid fish of North America and one of the largest in the world, with reports of individuals up to 6 ft (1.8 m) long and weighing over 100 pounds (45 kg). Native to the Colorado River Basin of the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico, it was formerly an important food fish for both Native Americans and European settlers. Once abundant and widespread in the basin, its numbers have declined to the point where it has been extirpated from the Mexican part of its range and was listed as endangered in the US part in 1967, a fate shared by the three other large Colorado Basin endemic fish species: bonytail chub, humpback chub, and razorback sucker. The Colorado pikeminnow is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN, while its NatureServe conservation status is "critically imperiled".
The Beaver Dam Wash is a seasonal stream near the southwestern Utah-Nevada border in the United States. At its southern end in northern Arizona, near the point where it empties into the Virgin River, the stream flows throughout the year. Part of the wash is in the Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area, managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The wash was so named on account of beaver dams which once were built on its course.
The Little Colorado spinedace is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found only in Arizona in the United States.
The headwater chub is a species of fish in the family Cyprinidae. It is found in Arizona and New Mexico.
The southern leatherside chub is a species of freshwater ray-finned fish from the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows. It is endemic to Utah in the United States. It is found in slow-flowing pools and backwaters, usually over substrates consisting of mud or sand, of creeks and small to medium-sized rivers. Within Utah, this species is found on the southeastern margins of the Bonneville Basin; it has been recorded from the American Fork, Provo River, and Spanish Fork drainages of the Utah Lake Basin and the San Pitch River, East Fork Sevier River, Beaver River, and the lower, middle, and upper Sevier River drainages of the Sevier River Basin; it has now apparently been extirpated from the Provo River at Utah Lake and from the Beaver River. It is threatened by the fragmentation of its habitat caused by water abstraction for irrigation, damming, urbanization, and poor farming practices. It is also threatened by introduced predatory fish such as the brown trout.
Galaxias lanceolatus, the tapered galaxias, is a galaxiid of the genus Galaxias, a member of the Mountain Galaxias species complex group of freshwater fish, found in Australia.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)| Authority control databases: National |
|---|
