Common Carp Cyprinus carpio Population Dynamics in the Upper Mississippi River

Invasive species often develop into established populations in novel environments. Common Carp (Cyprinus carpio), an invasive fish in North America, represent the majority of the relative biomass throughout the Upper Mississippi River. LTRM (Long Term Resource Monitoring program) has been studying the fish communities of the Mississippi River Basin for over twenty years at six study reaches (from pool 4; Lake City, MN to the open river reach; Cape Girardeau, MO). The goal of this project is to evaluate the Common Carp populations at the six study reaches and determine the dynamic rate functions (recruitment, growth and mortality). Adult Common Carp were collected from each reach as a part of the LTRM Electrofishing sampling in the summer of 2013 and 2014. Recruitment may be limited in the three northern reaches (zero fish less than 45 cm in total length or younger than 5 years old based on otolith age estimates). Being such a long lived (ages estimates from 2-48 and length 285-855mm) and abundant species (relative biomass), a high recruitment year could have detrimental impacts to the entire ecosystem for an extended period of time.