Overview

• Researchers used light traps at 10 locations to collect 2,211 larvae whose DNA identified 24 species.
• Reproducing species include black crappie, bluegill, largemouth bass, gizzard shad, golden shiner, and spotfin shiner, with brook silverside and mimic shiner also detected.
• Less pollution-tolerant species were more common in the South Branch, while more tolerant species dominated the North Branch.
• Backwater areas such as unused barge slips in Bubbly Creek emerged as candidate nursery habitats that researchers say warrant further study.
• The paper by Shedd Aquarium’s Dr. Austin Happel was published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research, and related work is testing how floating wetlands may influence spawning.