Water temperatures within spawning beds in two chalk streams and implications for salmonid egg development

Abstract

Water temperatures within brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) spawning gravels were measured in two Hampshire chalk streams from October 1995 to April 1996 inclusive. During the winter, mean intra-gravel water temperatures were higher than those in the stream, and increased with depth in the gravel bed. The amplitude of diel fluctuations in water temperature decreased with depth in the gravel bed, although diel fluctuations were still evident at a depth of 30 cm. Differences in intra-gravel temperature gradients between the two study sites were attributed to differences in the amplitude of stream water temperature fluctuations and there was no evidence that either of the study sites were located in zones of upwelling groundwater. Published equations are used to predict, from temperature, the timing of important stages in the development of brown trout embryos (eyeing, hatching and emergence) for eggs spawned in the autumn and winter and buried at different depths in the gravel bed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.