What specific substrate do bull trout rely on for successful redd construction and egg incubation?
Answer
Clean, well-oxygenated gravel
A critical environmental requirement for the bull trout's reproductive success involves the physical composition of the stream bed. They depend entirely on clean, well-oxygenated gravel substrates to construct their redds, which are the nests where eggs are laid and incubated. When processes like bank erosion due to poor land management or physical habitat disruption from logging introduce fine sediment into the stream, this material can effectively smother the buried eggs. The smothering of eggs severely compromises recruitment, meaning fewer young fish survive to join the adult population, thereby linking the health of the watershed's gravel beds directly to the species' continuation.
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