Geographic Distribution of Species
The mottled sculpin, Cottus bairdii, is known to inhabit a large geographical range in North America. Their natural habitat range is from Northern Canada down to the Mobile and Tennessee River drainage systems. They are also commonly found in streams in the Rocky Mountains along with many steams found throughout the Midwest United States. The mottled sculpin has historically been found throughout all the environments listed above. For the most part, the geographical range of the mottled sculpin has not changed throughout the years due to it is being a resilient fish and because it has a large temperature gradient in which it can reside. However in a study by Besser and others in 2007, mottled sculpins have been absent in streams thought to be populated by them in the past due to the species being more sensitive to toxic levels of cadmium, copper, and zinc than species of salmonids. Of these three metals zinc seems to be the most threatening to the mottled sculpin. One study found mottled sculpins to be the third most sensitive aquatic species to zinc. Therefore the biggest threat to the species would be high mining areas or areas where coal is burned frequently.
Read more about this topic: Mottled Sculpin
Famous quotes containing the words distribution and/or species:
“The man who pretends that the distribution of income in this country reflects the distribution of ability or character is an ignoramus. The man who says that it could by any possible political device be made to do so is an unpractical visionary. But the man who says that it ought to do so is something worse than an ignoramous and more disastrous than a visionary: he is, in the profoundest Scriptural sense of the word, a fool.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)