Malcolm Butler

North Dakota State University | NDSU · Department of Biological Sciences

The Bowfin Amia calva is an amiid (Amiiformes) relict native to North America. It is the last surviving member of the Halecomorphi, a group of fishes that evolved more than 250 million years ago. Despite the phylogenetic significance of the amiids in vertebrate evolution, little has been published about their age and growth. Recreational bowfin har...

The carpsuckers, which include Quillback Carpiodes cyprinus, river carpsucker Carpiodes carpio, and highfin carpsucker Carpiodes velifer, are ictiobine catostomids (Catostomidae) native to North America. At present, the Carpiodes are classified for management purposes in a multi-species group (derogatorily labeled “rough fish”) by state agencies th...

Despite decades of commercial harvest of bigmouth buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) from Jamestown Reservoir, North Dakota, and the recent rapid growth of sport bowfishing that targets this species, there is a lack of biological information on this native catostomid. At present, no-limit recreational and commercial harvest of bigmouth buffalo occurs i...

Parthenogenesis, reproduction without fertilization, is not common in the Chironomidae (Diptera), a family of insects with more than 6,000 described species. Nonetheless, parthenogenetic species and strains have been documented in at least three subfamilies (the Chironominae, Orthocladiinae, and Telmatogoninae), spanning 17 genera and ~30 species....

Understanding the age structure and population dynamics of harvested species is crucial for sustainability, especially in fisheries. The Bigmouth Buffalo (Ictiobus cyprinellus) is a fish endemic to the Mississippi and Hudson Bay drainages. A valued food-fish for centuries, they are now a prized sportfish as night bowfishing has become a million-dol...

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract The ecological consequences of climate change have been recognized in numerous species, with perhaps phenology being the most well-docum...

Developing at low mean temperatures, arctic chironomids often have prolonged larval growth yet adult emergence is typically a brief and highly synchronous event. How does a midge population achieve synchronous emergence? Under the Absolute Spring Species Hypothesis (AbSS), adult eclosion by early-emerging species may be synchronized by overwinterin...

Except for one unconfirmed case, chironomid larvae have been reported to pass through four larval instars between egg and pupal stages. We have observed a fifth larval instar to be a standard life-cycle feature of the podonomine Trichotanypus alaskensis Brundin 1966 in tundra ponds on the Arctic Coastal Plain near Barrow, Alaska. T. alaskensis has...

Temperature plays a major role in determining organism size, especially for ectotherms. This has been exemplified by laboratory-reared chironomids at Barrow, Alaska.

Temperature plays a major role in determining organism size, especially for ectotherms. This has been expemplified by laboratory-reared chironomids at Barrow, Alaska.

Background/Question/Methods Climate change is disproportionately warming the Arctic, with potentially important ecological consequences. Insects emerging from the myriad tundra ponds on Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain are a primary prey resource for many tundra-nesting birds. Synchronization of this pulse of emerging prey biomass with avian nesting...

Seasonal ponds are common throughout forested regions of the north central United States. These wetlands typically flood due to snow-melt and spring precipitation, then dry by mid-summer. Periodic drying produces unique fishless habitats with robust populations of aquatic invertebrates. A basin’s physical/chemical features, the absence of vertebrat...

The name Chironomus pallidivittatus sensu Edwards is widely used by specialists for the European species described by Edwards, whereas the use of the name Ch. tentans var. pallidivittatus Malloch is limited. In the light of the wide use of the name Chironomus pallidivittatus sensu Edwards, particularly in fields outside taxonomy, combined with virt...

Multiple stressors to a shallow lake ecosystem have the ability to control the relative stability of alternative states (clear, macrophyte-dominated or turbid, algal-dominated). As a consequence, the use of remedial biomanipulations to induce trophic cascades and shift a turbid lake to a clear state is often only a temporary solution. Here we show...

We developed a surface-associated activity trap (SAT) for sampling aquatic invertebrates in wetlands. We compared performance of this trap with that of a conventional activity trap (AT) based on nondetection rates and relative abundance estimates for 13 taxa of common wetland invertebrates and for taxon richness using data from experiments in const...

Understanding the responses of tundra systems to global change has global implications. Most tundra regions lack sustained environmental monitoring and one of the only ways to document multi-decadal change is to resample historic research sites. The International Polar Year (IPY) provided a unique opportunity for such research through the Back to t...

The arctic tundra ponds at the International Biological Program (IBP) site in Barrow, AK, were studied extensively in the 1970s; however, very little aquatic research has been conducted there for over three decades. Due to the rapid climate changes already occurring in northern Alaska, identifying any changes in the ponds' structure and function ov...

Phytoplankton abundance and nutrient concentrations in shallow-water ecosystems are influenced by submerged macrophytes, zooplankton, and fish, but few studies have simultaneously assessed the influence of all three variables. We sampled 18 semipermanent prairie wetlands for 5 years to assess influences of minnows, submersed macrophytes, cladoceran...

We examined the relationships between invertebrate community structure and a number of biotic and abiotic variables in 19 semipermanent prairie wetlands. We tested whether aquatic invertebrate communities differed (i) between wetlands with and without fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and (ii) according to drainage history of wetlands (restored...

We evaluated effects of complete fish kill in a large, shallow, eutrophic lake in Minnesota. Low densitites of Bosmina and Chydorus (< 100∙L−1) were replaced in the early spring/early summer by high densities of larger Daphnia galeata and D. pulex (> 100∙L−1) during the first year after the fish kill (1988). During peak daphnid abundance (May–June)...

Macrogeographic patterns of polytene chromosomal banding sequences were studied in natural populations of the Holarctic species Chironomus plumosus. Of the 31 inversion sequences now known, 16 are endemic to the Palearctic, 7 are endemic to the Nearctic, and 8 are Holarctic sequences common to both zoogeographic zones. Differences in the sets of in...

Polytene chromosomes of Chironomus (Camptochironomus) tentans from Europe, Siberia, and North America were examined to clarify genetic relationships among widely distributed populations of this Holarctic midge. This first extensive cytogenetic analysis of Siberian populations confirms earlier suppositions that C. tentans karyotypes are quite unifor...

Chromosomal polymorphism is described for natural populations of Chironomus pallidivittatus in both the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. The Palearctic populations studied exhibit 24 banding sequences, whereas 10 banding sequences have been recorded from Nearctic C. pallidivittatus. In total, 29 sequences and 37 genotypic combinations have been fou...

The life cycles of two sibling Chironomus species inhabiting tundra ponds on the arctic coast of Alaska are interpreted from larval and adult data collected over 3 years. Emergence of adults was highly synchronous within each species, and the two emergence periods were always discrete. Larvae of the two species could not be separated morphologicall...

The name of Chironomus pallidivittatus sensu Edwards, a species from Europe described by Edwards, is widely used by specialists, whereas the use of the Malloch's original C. tentans variety is limited. In the light of the widespread use of the name Chironomus pallidivittatus sensu Edwards, particularly in fields outside taxonomy coupled with virtua...

1. Reservoir creation and management can enhance many ecological services provided by freshwater ecosystems, but may alter the natural conditions to which aquatic biota have adapted. Benthic macroinvertebrates often reflect environmental conditions, and this community may be particularly susceptible to water-level changes that alter sediment exposu...

Polymorphism and differentiation of the chromosome banding sequence pools and genomic DNA were studied in three natural populations of Chironomus entis from Europe and North America. These populations showed a moderate level of chromosomal polymorphism and high RAPD polymorphism of genomic DNA. The Palearctic and Nearctic populations of this specie...

During 1999-2005, we studied aquatic invertebrate communities in 24 small, seasonally flooded wetlands (seasonal ponds) in aspen (Populus spp.)-dominated landscapes in north central Minnesota, USA. Sites were chosen from 2 different landforms, with 6, 6, and 12 wetlands selected from stands estimated to have been harvested 10-34 (young age), 35-58...

Using RAPD markers, polymorphism and differentiation of genomic DNA was examined in seven natural populations of Chironomus plumosus from Europe, Siberia, and North America. All these populations showed high polymorphism of genomic DNA. The Palearctic and Nearctic populations of this species were not statistically significantly different in the gen...

Using data sets from two separate studies, we assessed within-year variation in aquatic invertebrate communities in 31 seasonally flooded (seasonal) wetlands in aspen (Populus spp.) — dominated forests in north central Minnesota. Principal components analysis (PCA) indicated that, in each case, three axes explained > 55% of variance in aquatic inve...

1. We compared the size distribution of aquatic invertebrates in two prairie wetlands, one supporting a population of fathead minnows and the other fishless. Both wetlands were sampled in three depth zones on three dates, allowing assessment of temporal and spatial variation.2. We determined biomass of aquatic invertebrates in 17 log2 size classes,...

Summary • Anthropogenic landscape modifications have resulted in increased water depths and greater connectivity among the remaining shallow lakes throughout eastern portions of the Prairie Pothole Region of North America. This has created conditions favourable for the establishment of planktivorous fish populations, notably fathead minnows Pimepha...

The high level of inversion polymorphism and, correspondingly, the abundance of inversion banding sequences (BSs) of polytene chromosomes in the banding sequence pool of Chironomus species permit scientists to reconstruct the cytogenetic evolution of the genus and to evaluate the role of structural rearrangements in the genome during population div...

The variation and divergence of genomic DNA in four species of the subgenus Camptochironomus (C. tentans, C. dilutus, C. pallidivittatus, and C. setivalva) differing in the level of their cytological similarity were analyzed using the RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA) method. A high level of variation in the RAPD markers was found in the sp...

What circumstances allow the coexistence of similar species is a common but complex question in community ecology. It is often assumed that sympatric species within the same guild must employ some mechanism of niche diversifi- cation to coexist. Diving duck (Anatidae: Aythya Boie, 1822 and Oxyura Bonaparte, 1828) competition is poorly under- stood...

1 We tracked calcite saturation and seston composition during 1987 and 1988 in a shallow, hardwater prairie lake, 1 year before and 1 year after a lake-wide fish removal. We also measured the contribution of calcite to turbidity during 1988.2 In both years calcite saturation increased rapidly after all ice had thawed and peaked during mid-late summ...

Contemporary ecological landscape planning is often based on the assumption that small isolated habitat patches sustain relatively few species. Here, we suggest that for shallow lakes and ponds, the opposite can be true for some groups of organisms. Fish communities tend to be poor or even absent in small isolated lakes. However, submerged vegetati...

Wetlands are abundant throughout the prairie pothole region (PPR), an area comprising over 700,000 km2 in central North America. Prairie wetland communities are strongly influenced by regional physiography and climate, resulting in extreme spatial and temporal variability relative to other aquatic ecosystems. Given the strong influence of abiotic f...

Thermal patterns vary on different time scales, with differing consequences for temperature-sensitive organisms. We monitored water temperature at 1/2hr intervals from mid-June through October 2003 along a 30km reach of the Straight River, a spring-fed stream in west-central Minnesota that begins with discharge from a warm-water lake. We analyzed t...

We examined the impacts of macrophyte beds dominated by a canopy-forming (Myriophyllum sibiricum) and a meadow-forming (Chara canescens) species on bottom shear stress () and resuspension in shallow Lake Christina, Minnesota (U.S.A.). Studies were conducted in late summer, 1998, when macrophyte biomass levels exceeded 200gm–2, and in early summer,...

Submerged macrophytes are important components of wetland ecosystems in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America, but factors influencing species abundance and community structure are poorly known. We sampled submerged macrophyte communities and habitat characteristics in 18 prairie wetlands for five years in order to 1) assess interspecific rel...

Wetlands in the Prairie Pothole Region of North America are harsh environments for fish, and only two planktivorous species are common in these ecosystems: fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and brook sticklebacks (Culaea inconstans). Given their similarities, competition between these species may be high, especially for food resources. We asses...

Macrophyte community structure in Lake Christina, a large shallow lake in west-central Minnesota, changed in response to a biomanipulation treatment in 1987. Three years of pre-treatment and 11 years of post-treatment data were analyzed. Using a combination of cluster analysis and indicator species analysis, three distinct macrophyte communities we...

To evaluate the potential development of a macroinvertebrate Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for Prairie Pothole Region wetlands, we sampled the aquatic macroinvertebrate and fish communities in 24 semipermanent wetlands located throughout central North Dakota. Wetland basins were selected to encompass a range of surrounding land-use, ranging from...

SUMMARY 1. Research has shown that fish influence the structure and processes of aquatic ecosystems, but replicated studies at the ecosystem level are rare as are those involving wetlands. Some wetlands of the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North America support fish communities dominated by fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) while others are f...

PURPOSE: This technical note examines the impact of differing biomass levels and plant architectural types on bottom shear stress and sediment resuspension in shallow systems. Studies were conducted at Lake Christina, Minnesota, in late August-early September 1998, when macrophyte biomass levels exceeded 200 g/m 2 and in June 2000, when biomass was...

Activity traps are commonly used to develop abundance indices of aquatic invertebrates and may be deployed with either the funnel parallel to the water surface (horizontal position) or facing down (vertical position). We compared the relative performance of these two positions in terms of numbers of invertebrates captured, species richness of sampl...

Ecosystem structure and sizes of nutrient pools were compared between two prairie wetlands with contrasting food-web configurations, one site supporting a population of fathead minnows and the other fishless. It was hypothesized that the fishless wetland would typify the clear-water state, the wetland with fish the turbid-water state, and that macr...

We assessed the effects of rotenone on aquatic invertebrate communities by comparing four prairie wetlands treated with rotenone to four control sites. Data collected one week before and three weeks after treatment in the fall of 1998 were paired to assess short-term effects, while data collected in spring 1998 and spring 1999 were paired to assess...

Fish communities in prairie wetlands are extremely dynamic. Due to complete winterkills and periodic colonization, individual basins alternate between supporting a fish population and being fishless. Here we assess the ecological consequences of colonization and subsequent extinction of a fathead minnow population in a prairie wetland. We used a BA...

Analysis of banding sequences of polytene chromosomes in Palearctic (Russian) and Nearctic (North American) Chironomus entis shows strong karyotype divergence between populations on the two continents. Four out of seven chromosomal arms in the North American C. entis karyotype are characterized by sequences found only in the Nearctic. In total, 44...

Analysis of banding sequences of polytene chromosomes in Palearctic (Russian) and Nearctic (North American) Chironomus entis shows strong karyotype divergence between populations on the two continents. Four out of seven chromosomal arms in the North American C. entis karyotype are characterized by sequences found only in the Nearctic. In total, 44...

We developed a surface-associated activity trap (SAT) for sampling aquatic invertebrates in wetlands. We compared performance of this trap with that of a conventional activity trap (AT) based on nondetection rates and relative abundance estimates for 13 taxa of common wetland invertebrates and for taxon richness using data from experiments in const...

Macrogeographic patterns of polytene chromosomal banding sequences were studied in natural populations of the Holarctic species Chironomus plumosus. Of the 31 inversion sequences now known, 16 are endemic to the Palearctic, 7 are endemic to the Nearctic, and 8 are Holarctic sequences common to both zoogeographic zones. Differences in the sets of in...

Use of mark-recapture techniques to estimate the size of fish populations relies on several assumptions, one being that marked and unmarked fish have equal probabilities of capture. This requires that marked fish, if released at their site of capture, mix randomly with unmarked fish in the population before recapture. We tested whether marked fathe...

Morphological comparison of populations of Chironomus (Camptochironomus) tentans (Fabricius) from Europe, Asia and North America has confirmed earlier cytogenetic evidence that two distinct species inhabit the Palearctic and the Nearctic under this name. The Palearctic species is the true C. tentans, whereas Nearctic populations constitute a new sp...

Chromosomal polymorphism is described for natural populations of Chironomus pallidivittatus in both the Palearctic and Nearctic regions. The Palearctic populations studied exhibit 24 banding sequences, whereas 10 banding sequences have been recorded from Nearctic C. pallidivittatus. In total, 29 sequences and 37 genotypic combinations have been fou...

Identification and assessment of the relative importance of factors affecting duckling growth and survival are essential for effective management of mallards on breeding areas. For each of 3 years (199%9.5), we placed Fl-generation wild mallard (Arm plutyrhynchos) females on experimental wetlands and allowed them to mate, nest, and rear broods for...

Set and frequencies of inversion banding sequences were recorded in the Palearctic and Nearctic natural populations of a Holarctic chironomid Glyptotendipes barbipes. This species has a hing level of inversion polymorphism in all populations studied (from 74 to 100 % of larvae were inversion heterozygotes in different populations). It is shown that...

Chromosomal polymorphism and cytogenetic differentiation of 28 natural and laboratory populations ofCamptochironomus tentans from Siberia, Europe, and North America were examined. Interpopulation variation of the number and frequency of inversion sequences and mean heterozygosity in C. tentans populations from different continents were shown to be...

We evaluated effects of fish removal from a large, shallow lake that historically was an important feeding area for migrating diving ducks. In the decade before fish removal, turbidity was high, submerged macrophytes and benthic macroinvertebrates were not abundant, and waterfowl use was negligible. Zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates increa...

Fecundity ofChironomus cucini increased linearly across a three-fold range of female pupal biomass. Females from a lake producing small pupae (Crystal Lake) had an average of 303 primary follicles, while larger pupae from Trout Lake had an average fecundity of 582. Pupae produced in Crystal Lake from larvae that received experimental food supplemen...

We evaluated the effect of a fish removal from a shallow, turbid, eutrophic lake. By late May (following an October fish removal), the cladoceran community shifted from small-bodiedBosmina andChydorus (less than 100 l−1) to largerDaphnia (over 100 l−1). During the periods of peak daphnid abundance (late May–June) chlorophyll-a concentrations and ed...

A three-year life cycle was determined for a population of Chironomus tenuistylus, the predominant benthic macroinvertebrate in a small, dystrophic lake in northern Wisconsin, by analyzing larval size and developmental stage distributions on eight dates over a two-year period. The coexistence of three discrete cohorts could be recognized clearly on...

C. hyperboreus Staeg., C. islandicus K., C. tardus Butler, C. cucini Webb, C. major n.sp. and C. neocorax n.sp. were found to belong to the thummi-complex (chromosome arm combination AB, CD, EF, G). They can be characterized by primitive banding patterns, heterochromatinized centromeres, scarcity of inversion polymorphism, poor chromosome structure...

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Two discrete periods of adult emergence indicated that an unknown Chironomus population consisted of a pair of sibling species. Morphometric analysis of all life history stages confirmed this hypothesis. The new species Chironomus prior and C. tardus can be distinguished as larvae, pupae, and male and female adults, although many traditional taxono...

Adult chironomids emerging from tundra ponds near Barrow, Alaska (72°N) were trapped quantitatively through three complete seasons. All major species showed highly synchronous emergence patterns, and protandry was observed in most cases. Each species occupied a consistent position within the overall emergence season. Species specific timing may act...

The distribution of the ribbon leech, NepMlopsis obscwra, was examined in the Central Lowland and Missouri Coteau regions of North Dakota. The leech was found in 12 of3S ponds sampled during a two-year period. Leeches were trapped with throated metal cans and burlap sacks baited with frozen fish parts. Leech ocamence was positively correlated with...

Insects in the dipteran family Chironomidae are the dominant benthic macroinvertebrates in shallow tundra ponds near Barrow, Alaska (71(DEGREES)18 'N, 156(DEGREES)42 'W). Quantitative emergence trapping in three ponds over two seasons produced over 20 common chironomid species. Population sizes and community composition varied considerably between...