The Importance of Understanding Fish Behavior to Enhance Native Populations and Limit the Effects of Invasive Species

The ways in which fish behave influences the choices that they make about how far to move, which areas to explore and expand into. Some behaviors are innate, whereas others are influenced by the experiences fish have during early life. Comparing behavior across species further reveals considerable variation in what fish learn and how this affects their behavior. To manage fish populations effectively and to help promote fish passage for native populations while mitigating the threat from invasive species, requires an in depth understanding of the way fish make decisions. I will present work highlighting how we can use studies of fish cognition to inform us about the kinds of management strategy that will improve conditions for native species and protect habitats from non-desirable species. Over the last two decades, my research group and I have been documenting within and between species differences in fish cognition and behavior, and we have devised simple and effective assays to produce behavioral phenotypic profiles. These kinds of approach will be described and the ways in which these could be implemented into a management framework will be discussed.