Habitat selection of larval brook lampreys (Lampetra planeri, Bloch) in a South Swedish stream

✍ Scribed by B. Malmqvist

• Book ID: 104732696
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1980
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 338 KB
• Volume: 45
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-8549
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00346704

✦ Synopsis

The burrowing larvae of the brook lamprey Lampetra planeri (Bloch) were shown by discriminant analysis to inhabit stream sites having certain qualities. Although a few larvae occurred in far-from-optimal habitats, most larvae selected those with low current velocity, low water depth, a low number of particles in the 0.5-1 mm range, and with low chlorophyll α content. Other factors normally positively attributed to larval lamprey distribution such as organic content, shade, and presence of algae did not improve the discriminant model. The last factor even showed a negative correlation. Stream bed stability was considered to be of great importance although it was not possible to estimate quantitatively.