Amounts of Asymmetry in Centrarchid Fish Inhabiting Heated and Nonheated Reservoirs

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Abstract
The effects of heated effluents on morphology of fishes in natural populations were investigated. Largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), bluegills (Lepomis macrochirus), and redbreast sunfish (Lepomis auritus) were sampled in bodies of water that had never experienced thermal effluents, in those that were currently receiving heated effluents, and in those that had received heated effluents in the past, but received them no longer. Differences in means between heated and ambient temperature locations were seen only in two meristic characters in the redbreast sunfish. Differences in amounts of bilateral asymmetry (hypothesized to be a measure of developmental homeostasis) were not demonstrated between populations in heated and ambient-temperature locations. However, fish from a pond heavily contaminated with mercury had higher levels of asymmetry than fish from the other populations sampled.

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