Liquid Lifeline
This body system transports blood around the body.
What is the circulatory system?
These organs are where gas exchange happens in fish.
What are gills?
These reproductive organs produce eggs or sperm.
What are gonads?
These bony plates help protect young White Sturgeon.
What are scutes?
Too much sand or silt can cause this problem for eggs on the river bottom.
What is suffocation?
Fish use this type of oxygen, not oxygen from the H₂O molecule.
What is dissolved oxygen?
This bony flap protects the gills and helps move water across them.
What is the operculum?
This term means the release of eggs and sperm.
What is spawning?
These structures help White Sturgeon sense food near the river bottom.
What are barbels?
White Sturgeon spawning is most successful when river temperatures are around this range.
What is 14–18°C?
This heart chamber receives blood returning from the body.
What is the atrium?
These tiny folds are the main gas exchange surface of the gills.
What are lamellae?
This sperm-containing fluid is released by male fish.
What is milt?
This feeding adaptation lets White Sturgeon suck prey from the river bottom instead of chasing it like an active predator.
What is a protrusible mouth?
This is why hatcheries can help White Sturgeon recovery, but cannot solve the problem alone.
What is poor habitat?
This heart chamber pumps blood toward the gills.
What is the ventricle?
These blood vessels in the lamellae are where oxygen enters the blood.
What are capillaries?
This type of fertilization happens when sperm fertilizes the egg outside the body.
What is external fertilization?
This body feature helps White Sturgeon stay close to the river bottom in flowing water.
What is a flattened head?
This is the main issue when adult sturgeon still spawn, but eggs, larvae, fry, or juveniles do not survive.
What is recruitment failure?
Fish circulation is called this because blood passes through the heart once per full circuit.
What is single-loop circulation?
This process maintains the oxygen gradient.
What is countercurrent exchange?
This food source supports young fish after hatching, before they feed on their own.
What is the yolk sac?
Female White Sturgeon may not reach maturity until around this many years old.
What is 25–30 years?
White Sturgeon eggs need this to keep oxygen moving around them during early development.
What is river flow?