Pearce, RH;
Sayer, CD;
Chadwick, MA;
Harvey, GL;
Burningham, H;
Tosney, J;
Auwerx, J;
(2025)
Bringing Back the Burbot (Lota lota L.): Assessing Instream and Floodplain Habitat Availability to Support the Reintroduction of a Nationally Extinct Fish.
River Research and Applications
, 41
(6)
pp. 1362-1378.
10.1002/rra.4448.
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Abstract
Species reintroductions can play a major role in addressing biodiversity declines. Fish species reintroductions are, however, complex and require the investigation of multiple factors: physical habitat, water chemistry and hydrology, among others. The burbot (Lota lota, L.), the only freshwater member of the Cod family (Gadidae), was extirpated from English rivers due to habitat modification, leading to a loss of suitable spawning and larval nursery habitat. This paper uses a bespoke field survey, grounded in burbot ecology, to assess instream habitat availability for a proposed English burbot reintroduction site, the River Wissey, eastern England. Using an ex situ assessment, the study compares the Wissey in terms of floodplain spawning and larval nursery habitats with three Belgian sites where a burbot reintroduction is on-going. The study found that the English candidate reintroduction site had 10% of the main channel habitat available for instream spawning, with 15% available for juveniles, 20% for adults and 42% classified as unsuitable for any life stage. The floodplain habitat analysis determined that the English reintroduction site had a potential floodplain spawning habitat capacity of 56%, compared to < 42% at the Belgian comparison sites. Overall, habitat associated with each burbot life stage is present at the English candidate reintroduction site. Based solely on physical river habitat, this paper recommends river restoration before the reintroduction is attempted to increase connectivity between extant good-quality habitat patches and between the main channel and floodplain. To achieve a successful burbot reintroduction, it is concluded that more research is needed on hydrological and thermal dynamics, as well as food–web interactions.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Bringing Back the Burbot (Lota lota L.): Assessing Instream and Floodplain Habitat Availability to Support the Reintroduction of a Nationally Extinct Fish |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1002/rra.4448 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.4448 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | Decision tree modelling | fish | freshwater conservation | geomorphology | habitat availability | river restoration | species reintroductions |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10210720 |
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