The sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) is a highly destructive invasive species within the Laurentian Great Lakes, but, is a legally protected species within its native range in the North Atlantic Ocean. Sea lamprey use multiple chemical cues either emitted or released from multiple life stages to perceive its environment and assess opportunities and risks while selecting suitable habitat during their terminal reproductive migration. This makes the sea lamprey a great model organism to test how conflicting signals of opportunities and risk are used by aquatic organisms during reproductive migrations. Here, we report two field tests designed to better understand how a cue derived from the carcasses of adult sea lamprey and the odor released by burrowing larvae influence the behavioral decisions made by migratory-phase sea lamprey once they have entered a riverine environment and a laboratory test to see if sea lamprey are repulsed by the extract of another imperiled anadromous lamprey. In our field experiments we demonstrated that when both odors are present lamprey behavior is contextually dependent upon the lateral distribution of odors as they approach the odor sources. In our laboratory experiment, we demonstrated that sea lamprey are repulsed by an extract derived from Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus). In whole, this information may be of use for managers developing novel strategies such as olfactory-mediated behavioral manipulation to achieve either control or conservation.
Read
