| Common carp were introduced into the United States in the mid-to-late 1800's, often achieve high biomass, and exert substantial influence on aquatic systems. Therefore, the objectives of my study were 10 assess precision of five aging structures for common carp, assess the relationship between recruitment patterns and climate variables, and follow cohorts from two common carp populations from hatch through the next spring and examined hatch timing, daily growth, and subsequent size structure of age-1 carp. My results suggest that pectoral fin ray section age estimates were similar to the validated structure (otoliths) whereas opercles, vertebrae, and scales were not. Therefore, I used pectoral fin sections for aging common carp and determined that recruitment in eastern South Dakota lakes appeared to function on a broad spatial synchronous scale influenced by some combination of environmental factors. Further, recruitment to age-1 appeared to be length dependent in both lakes. |
