Nicholas B D Phelps

University of Minnesota Twin Cities | UMN · Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology

During both regulatory and routine surveillance sampling of baitfish from the states of Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, and Wisconsin, USA, isolates (n = 20) of a previously unknown picornavirus were obtained from kidney/spleen or entire viscera of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas) and brassy minnows (Hybognathus hankinsoni). Following the appear...

Current US state and federal fish health regulations target the spread of viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus-IVb (VHSV-IVb) through movement restrictions of live fish; however, they largely ignore the potential for the virus to be spread through commercial distribution and use of frozen baitfish from VHSV-IVb-positive regions. Some state laws do re...

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSV) is a highly contagious and pathogenic virus of fish. The virus infects more than 70 fish species worldwide, in both fresh and salt water. A new viral strain (VHSV‐IVb) has proven both virulent and persistent, spreading throughout the Great Lakes of North America and to inland water bodies in the region. To...

Fish serve as indicators of exposure to contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) - chemicals such as pharmaceuticals, hormones, and personal care products - which are often designed to impact vertebrates. To investigate fish health and CECs in situ, we evaluated the health of wild fish exposed to CECs in waterbodies across northeastern Minnesota wit...

Dreissenid mussels are one of the most problematic aquatic invasive species (AIS) in North America, causing substantial ecological and economic effects. To date, dreissenid mussel control efforts in open water have included physical, biological, and chemical methods. The feasibility of successful dreissenid mussel management or eradication in lakes...

Emerging diseases of wildlife are an existential threat to biodiversity, and human-mediated movements of live animals are a primary vector of their spread. Wildlife disease risk analyses offer an appealing alternative to precautionary approaches because they allow for explicit quantification of uncertainties and consideration of tradeoffs. Such con...

Cyprinid herpesvirus-3 (CyHV-3) is an important pathogen of common carp (Cyprinus carpio, carp) causing significant economic and ecological impacts worldwide. The recent emergence of CyHV-3 in the Upper Midwest region of the United States has raised questions related to the disease ecology and host specificity of CyHV-3 in wild carp populations. To...

Complex socio-environmental interdependencies drive biological invasions, causing damages across large spatial scales. For widespread invasions, targeting of management activities based on optimization approaches may fail due to computational or data constraints. Here, we evaluate an alternative approach that embraces complexity by representing the...

Invasions of aquatic invasive species have caused significant economic and ecological damage to global aquatic ecosystems. Once an invasive population has established in a new habitat, eradication can be financially and logistically impossible, motivating management strategies to rely heavily upon prevention measures to reduce the introduction and...

The release of live baitfish by anglers has been identified as a high‐risk pathway for the introduction of aquatic invasive species due to the potential for invasive fish, invertebrates, or pathogens to be released simultaneously with the baitfish. Consequently, the release of live baitfish is illegal in many jurisdictions, but little is known abou...

Cyprinid herpesvirus 3 (CyHV-3) is the etiological agent of koi herpesvirus disease (KHVD) and important pathogen of aquaculture and wild populations of common carp worldwide. Understanding the relative contributions of direct and indirect transmission of CyHV-3 as well as the factors that drive CyHV-3 transmission can clarify the importance of env...

Invasions of aquatic invasive species have imposed significant economic and ecological damage to global aquatic ecosystems. Once an invasive population has established in a new habitat, eradication can be financially and logistically impossible, motivating management strategies to rely heavily upon prevention measures aimed at reducing the introduc...

The accidental spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) by recreational boaters is a major concern of state and county environmental planners in the USA. While programs for watercraft inspection to educate boaters and slow AIS spread are common practice, large numbers of boats and waterbodies, together with limited budgets, make program design diff...

Connectivity between waterbodies influences the risk of aquatic invasive species (AIS) invasion. Understanding and characterizing the connectivity between waterbodies through high-risk pathways, such as recreational boats, is essential to develop economical and effective prevention intervention to control the spread of AIS. Fortunately, state and l...

The management of aquatic invasive species (AIS) takes place in a complex and dynamic context, requiring an integrated approach that connects science and management to increase efficiency and effectiveness. However, successfully developing such an approach requires methods from multiple disciplines that aim to understand the interconnectedness and...

Interactions between koi herpesvirus (KHV) transmission and management of invasive common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Intensive aquaculture production systems often encounter infectious viral disease outbreaks causing substantial fish mortalities and associated economic losses. Blue catfish alloherpesvirus (BCAHV) is an Ictalurid herpesvirus with limited information on pathogenesis. To determine the host‐specificity and potential host range of BCAHV, the virus was...

The accidental spread of aquatic invasive species (AIS) by recreational boaters is a major concern of state and county environmental planners in the USA. While programs for watercraft inspection to educate boaters and slow AIS spread are common practice, large numbers of boats and waterbodies, together with limited budgets, make program design diff...

The need for yield research is increasing with the popularity of aquaponic food production systems where plants and fish are grown together in a recirculating system. Our objective was to compare the yield of three basil cultivars (“Elenora,” “Genovese,” “Nufar,” Ocimum basilicum) in four configurations (greenhouses: floating raft DWS, ebb & flow,...

Totiviridae is a virus family well known to infect uni-cellular organisms like fungi and protozoa. In more recent years, viruses characterized as toti-like viruses, have been found in primarily arthropods, but also a couple in planarians and piscine species. These toti-like viruses share phylogenetic similarities to totiviruses; however, their geno...

Host-associated microbiota play a critical role in host fitness by providing nutrition, enhancing digestion capabilities, and by providing protection from pathogens. Here, we investigated the effects of two environmental stressors, temperature, and salinity, on the microbiota associated with zebra mussels (ZMs), a highly invasive bivalve in North A...

Invasive species harm biodiversity and ecosystem services, with global economic costs of invasions exceeding $40 billion annually. Widespread invasions are a particular challenge because they involve large spatial scales with many interacting components. In these contexts, typical optimization-based approaches to management may fail due to computat...

Global wild/exotic animal trade serves as a risk factor for the spread of infectious diseases. In the United States, the majority of wild/exotic animal imports are comprised of aquatic organisms originating from Asia and may serve as a mechanism of infectious disease transmission to the country’s diverse and growing aquaculture industry. In this st...

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are one of the greatest threats to preserving Minnesota’s natural aquatic resources, requiring effective surveillance and early detection to mitigate the threats posed by AIS. In this report, we identify key components of a statewide surveillance and early detection system including, Surveys and Inspections, Partnersh...

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) managers are tasked with preventing the spread of many AIS moving through a highly complex and interconnected system, often with limited resources to do so. Using a data-driven approach to identify and prioritize waterbodies at high risk of invasion can help inform effective and efficient programs. To that end, we hav...

The majority of plant proteins used in aquatic feeds are derived from seed meals, which may contain antinutritional factors. Protein concentrates from plant foliage have received less attention in fish feeding trials. Alfalfa protein concentrate (APC) is derived from fresh alfalfa foliage that contains approximately 52% protein and is low in fiber....

Mass mortality events of common carp (Cyprinus carpio, carp) associated with carp edema virus (CEV) alone or in coinfections with koi herpesvirus (KHV), is an emerging issue. Despite recent outbreaks of CEV in wild carp populations, the host range of North American species has not been well studied. To that end, we intensively sampled carp (n = 106...

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) include a variety of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and hormones commonly detected in surface waters. Human activities, such as wastewater treatment and discharge, contribute to the distribution of CECs in water, but other sources and pathways are less frequently examined. This study aimed to identi...

Contaminants of emerging concern (CECs), such as pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and hormones, are frequently found in aquatic ecosystems around the world. Information on sublethal effects from exposure to commonly detected concentrations of CECs is lacking and the limited availability of toxicity data makes it difficult to interpret the b...

Cyprinid herpesvirus-3 (CyHV-3, syn. koi herpesvirus) is an important pathogen worldwide and a common cause of mass mortality events of wild common carp (Cyprinus carpio) in North America, however, reference strains and genomes obtained from wild carp are not available. Additionally, it is unclear if fishes in North America are susceptible to CyHV-...

The movement of live fish for use as bait in recreational angling has been identified as a high-risk pathway for the spread of aquatic invasive species and disease in the Great Lakes region. To better understand the hazards present in Minnesota's live baitfish pathway, we employed both conventional and advanced diagnostic approaches to detect non-t...

Heterosporis sutherlandae is an invasive microsporidian parasite in the Great Lakes region of North America that infects the skeletal muscle of numerous fish species, rendering the filet unfit for human consumption. Although H. sutherlandae has been identified as a pathogen of concern by state management agencies, there is little information to inf...

As global trade of live animals expands, there is increasing need to assess the risks of invasive organisms, including pathogens, that can accompany these translocations. The movement and release of live baitfish by recreational anglers has been identified as a particularly high‐risk pathway for the spread of aquatic diseases in the United States....

Stakeholder engagement in research is widely advocated as a tool to integrate diverse knowledge and perspectives in the management of health threats while addressing potential conflicts of interest. Although guidelines for stakeholder engagement exist in public health and environmental sciences, the feasibility of actionable decisions based on scie...

The present study systematically investigated the effects of warehouse and greenhouse aquaponic growing conditions on consumer acceptability of different basil cultivars. A total of 105 consumers rated their liking of three basil cultivars (Nufar, Genovese, and Eleonora), each grown in three conditions (aquaponically in a greenhouse, aquaponically...

Pharmaceuticals, personal care products, hormones, and other chemicals lacking water quality standards are frequently found in surface water. While evidence is growing that these contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) – those previously unknown, unrecognized, or unregulated – can affect the behavior and reproduction of fish and wildlife, little is...

Koi herpesvirus (KHV; cyprinid herpesvirus‐3) and carp oedema virus (CEV) are important viruses of common and koi carp (Cyprinus carpio); however, the distribution of these viruses in wild common carp in North America is largely unknown. During the summers of 2017 and 2018, 27 mass mortalities of common carp were reported from four states in the US...

Aquaponics, the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture into one growing system, is a controlled environment production system that potentially has increased environmental and consumer benefits over traditional production methods. There are many different ways to configure aquaponics systems that include different fish species, water circulation...

Point sources such as wastewater treatment plants, terrestrial agriculture, and aquaculture may release antibiotic residues, antibiotic resistant bacteria, and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) into aquatic ecosystems. However, there is a lack of quantitative studies attributing environmental ARG abundance to specific sources. The goal of this stu...

Fish kill investigations are critical to understanding threats to aquatic ecosystems and can serve as a measure of environmental disruption as well as an early indicator of emerging disease. The goal of this study was to analyze historical data related to such events among wild fish populations in Minnesota in order to assess the quality and comple...

Often facilitated by human-mediated pathways, aquatic invasive species are a threat to the health and biodiversity of global ecosystems. We present a novel approach incorporating survey data of watercraft movement in a social network analysis to reconstruct potential pathways of aquatic invasive species spread between lakes. As an example, we use t...

As the global human population continues to increase and become more industrialized, the need for safe, secure, and sustainable protein production is critical. One sector of particular importance is seafood production, where capture fishery and aquaculture industries provide 15–20% of the global protein supply. However, fish production can be sever...

Heterosporis sutherlandae is an emerging microsporidian fish parasite in the Great Lakes region. H. sutherlandae forms lesions in the muscle tissue of fishes important to aquaculture and sport fishing. These lesions render the filet inedible and may have fitness consequences. We evaluated the prevalence and severity of H. sutherlandae among yellow...

Results of Beverton-Holt equilibrium yield model for male yellow perch. (A) Yield and (C) mean weight of catch projections using the Jones modification of the Beverton-Holt equilibrium yield model as a function of fishing mortality for male yellow perch. (B) Percent loss of yield and (D) mean weight of catch as compared to no additional instantaneo...

Collection data from Leech Lake yellow perch. This dataset contains all of the field data from the yellow perch collected from Leech Lake. The first column is the number of fish collected. Column B is the date that each fish was collected. Column C refers to location captured (Fig 2). Column H and I are indications of whether a fish contained lesio...

Permission to recreate Fig 1 under creative commons license. (PDF)

Pharmaceuticals and endocrine active chemicals are commonly detected in surface water, yet there is little understanding of how most of these chemicals might affect fish and wildlife. We have developed an interdisciplinary team to study how these chemicals might be affecting fish and the sustainable hunting and fishing traditions of the Grand Porta...

Recognizing common reporting patterns of aquatic invasive Zebra mussels (Dreissena polymorpha, ZM) and Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum, EWM) helps to better understand invasions. We hypothesize that confirmed invasions may be confounded by human population density, leading to overrepresentation of invasions in highly populated areas an...

Zebra mussels (ZMs) (Dreissena polymorpha) and Eurasian watermilfoil (EWM) (Myriophyllum spicatum) are aggressive aquatic invasive species posing a conservation burden on Minnesota. Recognizing areas at high risk for invasion is a prerequisite for the implementation of risk-based prevention and mitigation management strategies. The early detection...

An illustration of the Eigenvector centrality for the waterbodies in the boater traffic network created using the surveys of Watercraft Inspection Program conducted by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The data from year 2013 are illustrated.

The boater traffic between waterbodies based on the Watercraft Inspection Program conducted by Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The data from year 2013 are illustrated. Panel (A) represents the movement of boaters from previously visited waterbody-to-waterbody where the survey data were collected. Panel (B) represents the movement of boat...

During regulatory sampling of fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas), a novel calicivirus was isolated from homogenates of kidney and spleen inoculated into bluegill fry (BF-2) cells. Infected cell cultures exhibiting cytopathic effects were screened by PCR-based methods for selected fish viral pathogens. Illumina HiSeq next generation sequencing of...

Aquatic invasive species (AIS) are of concern in North America due to their devastating impacts on ecosystems and economies. The Great Lakes region is particularly vulnerable to AIS introduction and establishment with at least 184 nonindigenous species reported in this region from a large number of taxa including viruses, bacteria, diatoms, protozo...

Aquaponics is the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics to grow fish and plants together in one system. Many producers in the northern United States are attracted to aquaponics for its potential to produce indoors year‐round. However, little is known about consumer preferences for products grown in aquaponic systems. To address this knowledge...

Disease biogeography is currently a promising field to complement epidemiology, and ecological niche modeling theory and methods are a key component. Therefore, applying the concepts and tools from ecological niche modeling to disease biogeography and epidemiology will provide biologically sound and analytically robust descriptive and predictive an...

R script to develop ecological niche models using Marble (DOCX).

Model evaluation results (DOCX).

R script for outliers detection in environmental space (DOCX).

R script to split the occurrence data for model evaluation as in Ref. (24) (TXT).

Spreadsheet formula to develop model evaluation (XLSX).

NicheA workflow and data to replicate analyses (XML).

Starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) is an alga that has emerged as an aquatic invasive species of concern in the United States. Where established, starry stonewort can interfere with recreational uses of water bodies and potentially have ecological impacts. Incipient invasion of starry stonewort in Minnesota provides an opportunity to predict fut...

Table A. Correlation matrix of environmental variables. Table B. Summary of model evaluations. (DOCX)

Aquaponics, an integrated system with both hydroponic plant production and aquaculture fish production, is an expanding alternative agriculture system. Many key questions about the overall feasibility of aquaponic systems remain unanswered. Of particular concern for start-up and established producers alike are consumer perceptions and willingness t...

Picornaviruses of fish belong to the family Picornaviridae. Fish picornaviruses are single stranded, positive-sense RNA viruses with a genome of 7.0 to 9.0 kb in length. This rapidly growing group of viruses affects a wide range of ray-finned fish species (class Actinopterygii) from marine and freshwater environments around the world. Clinical sign...

During regulatory and routine surveillance sampling of apparently healthy baitfish from the state of Minnesota, a novel totivirus (tentatively named “golden shiner totivirus”, GSTV) was detected in a homogenate of kidney and spleen of golden shiner (Notemigonus crysoleucas). The nearly complete genome is 7788 nt long with a complete 5’ untranslated...

During a survey of apparently healthy baitfish from the state of Minnesota, a novel piscine-myocarditis-like virus (PMCLV) was detected in golden shiners (Notemigonus crysoleucas). The nearly complete genome sequence is 5819 nt long, including a partial 5’ untranslated region (UTR) of 100 nt. The sequence is divided into three ORFs: the complete OR...