Redear sunfish
The redear sunfish is a freshwater fish in the Centrarchidae family and is native to the southeastern United States. Since it is a popular sport fish, it has been introduced to bodies of water all over North America, it is known for its diet of snails. The redear sunfish resembles the bluegill except for coloration and somewhat larger size; the redear sunfish has faint vertical bars traveling downwards from its dorsal. It is dark-colored yellow-green ventrally; the male has a cherry-red edge on its operculum. The adult fish are between 24 cm in length. Max length is 43.2 cm, compared to a maximum of about 40 cm for the bluegill. Lepomis microlophus averages at a size of about 0.45 kg larger than the average bluegill. Redear sunfish are native to North Carolina and Florida, west to south Illinois and south Missouri, south to the Rio Grande drainage in Texas. However, this fish has been introduced to other locations in the United States outside of its native range. In the wild, the redear sunfish inhabits warm, quiet waters of lakes, ponds and reservoirs.
They prefer to be near logs and vegetation, tend to congregate in groups around these features. This sunfish is located in many marsh wetlands of freshwater; the favorite food of this species is snails. These fish meander along lakebeds and cracking open snails and other shelled creatures. Redears have thick pharyngeal teeth, it is capable of opening small clams. The specialization of this species for the deep-water, mollusk-feeding niche allows it to be introduced to lakes without the risk of competition with fish that prefer shallower water or surface-feeding. In recent years, the stocking of redear has found new allies due to the fish's ability to eat quagga mussels, a prominent invasive species in many freshwater drainages. During spawning, males congregate and create nests close together in colonies, females visit to lay eggs; the redear sometimes hybridizes with other sunfish species. The redear sunfish is the first-known species of Centrarchidae based on fossil records, as old as 16.3 million years, dating back to the Middle Miocene.
Froese and Pauly, eds.. "Lepomis microlophus" in FishBase. November 2005 version. Ellis, Jack; the Sunfishes-A Fly Fishing Journey of Discovery. Bennington, VT: Abenaki Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-936644-17-6. Rice, F. Philip. America's Favorite Fishing-A Complete Guide to Angling for Panfish. New York: Harper Row. Rice, F. Philip. Panfishing. New York: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-943822-25-4. GLANSIS Species FactSheet
Black crappie
The black crappie is a freshwater fish found in North America, one of the two crappies. It is similar to the white crappie in size and habits, except that it is darker, with a pattern of black spots. Black crappies are most identified by the seven or eight spines on its dorsal fin. Crappies have a laterally compressed body, they are silvery-gray to green in color and show irregular or mottled black splotches over the entire body. Black crappies have rows of dark spots on their dorsal and caudal fins; the dorsal and anal fins resemble each other in shape. Both crappies have large mouths extending to below the eye, thin lips—both suggestive of their piscivorous feeding habits. Crappies are about 4–8 inches long; the current all-tackle fishing world record for a black crappie is 2.25 kg. The maximum length reported for a black crappie is 19.3 inches and the maximum published weight is just under 6 pounds. The black crappie's range is uncertain, since it has been transplanted, but it is presumed to be similar to the white crappie's.
Its native range is suspected to be in the eastern United States and Canada, as of 2005, populations existed in all of the 48 contiguous U. S. states. Introduced populations exist in Mexico and Panama; the black crappie's habitats are lakes, borrow pits, navigation pools in large rivers. They prefer areas with little or no current, clear water, abundant cover such as submerged timber or aquatic vegetation, as well as sand or mud bottoms like those found in lakes, ponds and sloughs. Like P. annularis, P. nigromaculatus is prolific and can tend to overpopulate its environment, with negative consequences both for the crappie and for other fish species. A commercial supplier of the fish, claims that it can be safely stocked in ponds as small as one acre in area. Crappies feed early in the morning and from about midnight until 2 am. Individuals smaller than about 16 cm in length eat plankton and minuscule crustaceans, while larger individuals feed on small fish, as well as minnows. Adult black crappie feed on fewer fish than white crappie do.
According to scientific studies carried out in California, mysid shrimp, Neomysis awatschensis, as well as amphipods, Corophium, were the most eaten by all sizes of black crappie. Although this diet is popular among black crappies in general, their diet may change based on habitat, availability of food, other biotic factors such as amount of resource competition; the same study showed that young, small crappie tend to feed on small aquatic invertebrate animals and changed to a fish-filled diet as they matured to adulthood. Its diet, as an adult, tends to be less dominated by other fish than that of the white crappie. Crappies are a popular sport fish, as they are easy to catch during their feeding times. There are minimal size restriction limits for fishing the crappie species. Black crappies can be safely harvested under minimal, reasonable regulations, as long as there is no permanent damage to the fishery or environment; the black crappie is not listed as a species under threat on the IUCN Red List.
Black crappies mature at 2–4 years. Growth during the first four years of their life is faster in the warm waters of the southern part of its range than in cooler waters in the north. White crappie have a higher growth rate in terms of length than black crappie. Most fish that are caught for sport are between 5 years old; the breeding season varies by location, due to the species' great range. Breeding temperature is 14‒20 °C and spawning occurs in spring and early summer. Spawning occurs in a nest built by the male. Males use their bodies and tails to sweep out an area of sand or mud in shallow water near a shoreline and vegetation to create a nest. Black crappies appear to nest in the most protected areas possible. Female crappies produce an average of 40,000 spherical eggs, the number depending on their age and size. After spawning, the male watches over the nest until eggs hatch, about 2–3 days. Newly hatched fish larvae appear translucent, they stay in the nest for several days before moving to sheltered waters.
The oldest recorded age of a specimen is fifteen years, although seven years is a more typical life span for the species. Pomoxis, the genus name, is Greek: "- atos" and "oxys" meaning sharp operculum; this references. The species name, nigromaculatus, is derived from Latin and means "black-spotted"
Motorboat
A motorboat, speedboat, or powerboat is a boat, powered by an engine. Some motorboats are fitted with inboard engines, others have an outboard motor installed on the rear, containing the internal combustion engine, the gearbox and the propeller in one portable unit. An inboard-outboard contains a hybrid of an inboard and an outboard, where the internal combustion engine is installed inside the boat, the gearbox and propeller are outside. There are two configurations of an V-drive and direct drive. A direct drive has the powerplant mounted near the middle of the boat with the propeller shaft straight out the back, where a V-drive has the powerplant mounted in the back of the boat facing backwards having the shaft go towards the front of the boat making a V towards the rear; the V-drive has become popular due to wakeboarding and wakesurfing. Although the screw propeller had been added to an engine as early as the 18th century in Birmingham, England, by James Watt, boats powered by a petrol engine only came about in the part of the 19th century with the invention of the internal combustion engine.
The earliest boat to be powered by a petrol engine was tested on the Neckar River by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach in 1886, when they tested their new "longcase clock" engine. It had been constructed in the former greenhouse in Daimler's back yard; the first public display took place on the Waldsee in Cannstatt, today a suburb of Stuttgart, at the end of that year. The engine of this boat had a single cylinder of 1 horse power. Daimler's second launch in 1887 had a second cylinder positioned at an angle of 15 degrees to the first one, was known as the "V-type"; the first successful motor boat was designed by the Priestman Brothers in Hull, under the direction of William Dent Priestman. The company began trials of their first motorboat in 1888; the engine was used an innovative high-tension ignition system. The company was the first to begin large scale production of the motor boat, by 1890, Priestman's boats were being used for towing goods along canals. Another early pioneer was Mr. J. D. Roots, who in 1891 fitted a launch with an internal combustion engine and operated a ferry service between Richmond and Wandsworth along the River Thames during the seasons of 1891 and 1892.
The eminent inventor Frederick William Lanchester recognized the potential of the motorboat and over the following 15 years, in collaboration with his brother George, perfected the modern motorboat, or powerboat. Working in the garden of their home in Olton, they designed and built a river flat-bottomed launch with an advanced high-revving engine that drove via a stern paddle wheel in 1893. In 1897, he produced a second engine similar in design to his previous one but running on benzene at 800 r.p.m. The engine drove a reversible propeller. An important part of his new engine was the revolutionary carburettor, for mixing the fuel and air correctly, his invention was known as a "wick carburetor", because fuel was drawn into a series of wicks, from where it was vaporized. He patented this invention in 1905; the Daimler Company began production of motor boats in 1897 from its manufacturing base in Coventry. The engines had two cylinders and the explosive charge of petroleum and air was ignited by compression into a heated platinum tube.
The engine gave about six horse-power. The petrol was fed by air pressure to a large surface carburettor and an auxiliary tank which supplied the burners for heating the ignition tubes. Reversal of the propeller was effected by means of two bevel friction wheels which engaged with two larger bevel friction wheels, the intermediate shaft being temporarily disconnected for this purpose, it was not until 1901 that a safer apparatus for igniting the fuel with an electric spark was used in motor boats. Interest in fast motorboats grew in the early years of the 20th century; the Marine Motor Association was formed in 1903 as an offshoot of the Royal Automobile Club. Motor Boat & Yachting was the first magazine to address technical developments in the field and was brought out by Temple Press, London from 1904. Large manufacturing companies, including Napier & Son and Thornycroft began producing motorboats; the first motorboating competition was established by Alfred Charles William Harmsworth in 1903.
The Harmsworth Cup was envisioned as a contest between nations, rather than between boats or individuals. The boats were to be designed and built by residents of the country represented, using materials and units built wholly within that country; the first competition, held in July 1903, at Cork Harbour in Ireland, officiated by the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland and the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, was a primitive affair, with many boats failing to start. The competition was won by Dorothy Levitt in a Napier launch designed to the specifications of Selwyn Edge; this motorboat was the first proper motorboat designed for high speed. She set the world's first water speed record when she achieved 19.3 mph in a 40-foot steel-hulled, 75-horsepower Napier speedboat fitted with a three-blade propeller. As both the owner and entrant of the boat, "S. F. Edge" was engraved on the trophy as the winner. An article in the Cork Constitution on 13 July reported "A large number of spectators viewed the first mile from the promenade of the Yacht Club, at Cork several thousand people collected at both sides of the river to see the finishes."
Levitt was commanded to the Royal yacht of King Edward VII where he congratulated her on her pluck and skill, they discussed the performance of the motorboat and its potential for British government despatch work. France
Green sunfish
The green sunfish is a species of freshwater fish in the sunfish family of order Perciformes. A panfish popular with anglers, the green sunfish is kept as an aquarium fish by hobbyists, they are caught by accident, while fishing for other game fish. Green sunfish can be caught with live bait such as nightcrawlers, mealworms and, blood worms. Grocery store baits such as pieces of hot dog or corn kernels can catch fish. Small lures have been known to catch green sunfish, they can be caught with fly fishing tackle. The green sunfish is said to have polarization sensitive vision not found in humans and other vertebrates which helps in enhancement of visibility of target objects in scattering media, using a method called polarization difference imaging; the green Sunfish is considered an invasive species in the state of New Jersey. In New Jersey anglers must destroy them, not release them, they are illegal to possess without a valid permit on research or exhibition by a public agency such as an aquarium or research facility.
The green sunfish is native to a wide area of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Hudson Bay basin in Canada, to the Gulf Coast in the United States, northern Mexico. They are indigenous to a number of lakes and rivers such as the Great Lakes and some of the basins of the Mississippi River. Green sunfish have been introduced to many bodies of water all across the United States, so are encountered. L. cyanellus has been transplanted to many countries in Africa and Europe, where it has become established in some. The green sunfish is blue-green in color on its back and sides with yellow-flecked bony-ridged scales, as well as yellow coloration on the ventral sides; the gill covers and sides of head have broken bright blue stripes, causing some to mistakenly confuse them with bluegill. They have a dark spot located near the back end of the dorsal fin, the bases of the anal fins. and on the ear plate. It has a big mouth and long snout that extends to beneath the middle of the eye, its pectoral fins are short with rounded edges containing 13-14 pectoral fin rays, a dorsal fin with about 10 dorsal spines and a homocercal tail.
The typical length ranges from about 3-7 in and weighs less than a pound. The green sunfish reaches a maximum recorded length of about 30 cm, with a maximum recorded weight of 960 g. Identification of sunfish species from one another can sometimes be difficult as these species hybridize; the species prefers areas in sluggish backwaters and ponds with gravel, sand, or bedrock bottoms. They can be found in muddy waters and are able to tolerate poor water conditions. Green sunfish tend to spend their time hiding around rocks, submerged logs and other things that provide cover, its diet can include aquatic insects and larvae, insects that fall into the water, snails, turtle food, some small fish and other small invertebrates. Green sunfish begin spawning in the summer with the exact time varying with location and water temperature; when they do spawn, the males create nests in shallow water by clearing depressions in the bottom near a type of shelter such as rocks or submerged logs. The male defends his nest from other males using physical force when necessary.
On occasion constructing a nest is sufficient for the male to attract a mate, but when it is not he will court a female with grunts and lead her to his nest. They continue their courtship dance, swimming with each other around the nest until the female descends to deposit her eggs in the nest; the female will leave them for the male to guard. He keeps watch over them until they hatch in three to five days, while protecting them and fanning them with his fins, keeping them clean and providing them with oxygenated water; when they hatch, the fry remain near the nest for a few days leave to feed and fend for themselves. After the eggs have hatched, the male will seek to attract another female to lay her eggs in his nest. Green sunfish tend to nest in areas close to other green sunfish, as well as other species of sunfish. Due to the close proximity of multiple nests, a green sunfish female may deposit some of her eggs into the nest of a male of a different species; this in turn leads to the next generation containing some amount of hybrids.
These green sunfish hybrids will look like a combination of their parents making it difficult to distinguish one species from another. The generic name Lepomis derives from the Greek λεπίς and πώμα; the specific epithet, derives from the Greek κυανός. Froese and Pauly, eds.. "Lepomis cyanellus" in FishBase. June 2014 version. "Lepomis cyanellus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Ellis, Jack; the Sunfishes-A Fly Fishing Journey of Discovery. Bennington, VT: Abenaki Publishers, Inc. ISBN 0-936644-17-6. Rice, F. Philip. America's Favorite Fishing-A Complete Guide to Angling for Panfish. New York: Harper Row. Rice, F. Philip. Panfishing. New York: Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-943822-25-4. Malo, John. Fly-Fishing for Panfish. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Dillon Press Inc. ISBN 0-87518-208-9. Axelrod, Herbert R. et al. Dr. Axelrod's Atlas of freshwater aquarium fishes T. F. H. Publications, Neptune City, New Jersey, ISBN 978-0-7938-0616-4 Philips, Schmid, W. Underhill, J. "Fishes of the Minnesota Region". University of Minnesota Press, Minnesota, ISBN 0-8166-0979-9 Page, Burr, B.
"A Field Guide to Freshwater Fishes". Houghton Mifflin Company, New York
University of Illinois at Springfield
The University of Illinois Springfield is a public university in Springfield, United States. The university was established in 1969 as Sangamon State University by the Illinois General Assembly and became a part of the University of Illinois system on July 1, 1995; as a public liberal arts college, the newest campus in the University of Illinois system, UIS is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. UIS is part of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the American Council on Education; the campus' main repository, Brookens Library, holds a collection of nearly 800,000 books and serials- in addition to accessible resources at the University of Illinois Chicago and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campuses. The University of Illinois Springfield serves 5,700 students in 27 undergraduate degree programs, 20 master's degree programs, a doctorate in Public Administration; the university was once one of the two upper-division and graduate universities in Illinois, but now accepts freshmen and graduate students.
In 1967, the Illinois General Assembly created a Board of Regents to operate Illinois State University and Northern Illinois University, as well as a third unnamed institution in Springfield. In 1969, Governor Richard Ogilvie signed into law a bill creating Sangamon State University, it operated as an "upper-division" university—that is, a university that offers only the last two years of undergraduate education, as well as graduate work. The first classes were held on September 1970 at First Methodist Church in downtown Springfield. In October, SSU began offering classes in the current campus location near Lake Springfield. Sangamon State aimed to be a "truly pioneering segment of public education" through a spirit of openness and adaptability; the school grew over the years. Its first permanent building, Brookens Library, was dedicated in 1976, its Public Affairs Center and first dormitories opened in 1980. In 1995, Governor Jim Edgar signed a bill which abolished the Board of Regents and merged SSU with the University of Illinois system.
On July 1, SSU became the University of Illinois at Springfield. Naomi Lynn, the last president of SSU, became the first chancellor of UIS. In 2001, it admitted freshmen for the first time in an honors program called the "Capital Scholars". On September 8, 2005, the University of Illinois Board of Trustees approved a new general education curriculum, making UIS a full-fledged four-year university for the first time. Freshmen were slated to be admitted under the general education curriculum beginning in fall 2006; the University of Illinois at Springfield is located six miles southeast of Springfield, occupying 740 acres of prairie land adjacent to Lake Springfield and Lincoln Land Community College. In 1841, the land was acquired by Thomas Strawbridge Jr. a prosperous saddler and harness maker in Springfield. The Thomas Strawbridge homestead, constructed around 1845, still stands on the south edge of the University of Illinois at Springfield campus and was restored in 2012. Today, there are three identifiable areas on campus: Legacy Campus, SSU Permanent Construction, the University of Illinois era.
The first permanent construction on campus, Brookens Library was completed in 1976 and the Public Affairs Center, was completed in Fall of 1980. These buildings were the first part of a master plan of 1970 - 1971 that called for an "urban campus" surrounded by restored prairie land, free of all vehicular traffic and navigable by pedestrians. All permanent campus buildings would be located within a "ring road", now known as University Drive; the Public Affairs Center houses Sangamon Auditorium, a 2,018 seat concert hall and performing arts center built in 1981. It occupies the entire second level of the Public Affairs Center. UIS is classified in the US News and World Report rankings as a "Regional University", a school that provides "a full range of undergraduate programs... some master's level programs... few, if any, doctoral programs." In the 2014 US News "Best Colleges" rankings, UIS ranked #8 in Top Public Schools and #36 in Regional Universities. The University of Illinois at Springfield has been offering online courses and degrees since 1999.
The Sloan Consortium has recognized UIS with the 2007 award for Excellence in Institution-Wide Online Teaching and Learning and the 2008 Ralph E. Gomory Award for Quality Online Education; the Society for New Communications Research, in 2008 recognized UIS with their Award for Excellence in Online Reputation Management. Each year since 2001, the Sloan Consortium has offered one award for "Most Outstanding Achievement by an Individual in Online Learning" - the 2002 award was given to Professor Emeritus Ray Schroeder, the 2003 award was given to Visiting Research Professor Burks Oakley, the 2006 award was given to the UIS James J. Stukel Distinguished Professor, Karen Swan; the UIS Computer Science Department has been recognized by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance/Cyberdefense Education. The goal of the program is to reduce vulnerability in the national information infrastructure by promoting higher education and research in Information Assurance and producing a growing number of professionals with IA expertise in various disciplines.
Students attending the designated schools are eligible to apply for scholarships and grants through the Department of Defense Information Assurance Scholarship Program and the F
Bluegill
The bluegill is a species of freshwater fish sometimes referred to as bream, sunny, or copper nose. It is a member of the sunfish family Centrarchidae of the order Perciformes, it is native to North America and lives in streams, rivers and ponds. It is found east of the Rockies, it hides around, inside, old tree stumps and other underwater structures. It can live in either deep or shallow water, will move back and forth, depending on the time of day or season. Bluegills like to find shelter among water plants and in the shade of trees along banks. Bluegills can grow up to about 4 1⁄2 pounds, they have distinctive coloring, with deep blue and purple on the face and gill cover, dark olive-colored bands down the side, a fiery orange to yellow belly. The fish will eat anything they can fit in their mouth, they feed on small aquatic insects and fish. The fish play a key role in the food chain, are prey for muskies, trout, herons, snapping turtles, otters; the bluegill is the state fish of Illinois. The bluegill is noted for the black spot that it has on the posterior edge of the gills and base of the dorsal fin.
The sides of its head and chin are a dark shade of blue. It contains 5–9 vertical bars on the sides of its body, but these stripes are not always distinct, it has a yellowish abdomen, with the breast of the breeding male being a bright orange. The bluegill has three anal spines, ten to 12 anal fin rays, six to 13 dorsal fin spines, 11 to 12 dorsal rays, 12 to 13 pectoral rays, they are characterized by their flattened bodies. They have a terminal mouth, ctenoid scales, a lateral line, arched upward anteriorly; the bluegill ranges in size from about four to 12 inches, reaches a maximum size just over 16 inches. The largest bluegill caught was four pounds, 12 ounces in 1950; the bluegill is most related to the orangespotted sunfish and the redear sunfish, but different in a distinct spot at or near the base of the soft dorsal fin. The bluegill occurs in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains from coastal Virginia to Florida, west to Texas and northern Mexico, north to western Minnesota and western New York.
Today they have been introduced to everywhere else in North America, have been introduced into Europe, South Africa, Asia, South America, Oceania. Bluegills have been found in the Chesapeake Bay, indicating they can tolerate up to 1.8% salinity. In some locations where they have been transplanted, they are considered pests: trade in the species is prohibited in Germany and Japan. In the case of Japan, bluegills were presented to the then-crown prince, Akihito in 1960 as a gift by Richard J. Daley, mayor of Chicago; the prince, in turn, donated the fish to fishery research agencies in Japan from which they escaped, becoming an invasive species which has wreaked havoc with native species in Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefecture. The emperor has since apologized. Bluegill live in the shallow waters of many lakes and ponds, along with slow-moving areas of streams and small rivers, they prefer water with many aquatic plants, hide within fallen logs or water weeds. They can be found around weed beds, where they search for food or spawn.
In the summer, adults move to deep, open water where they suspend just below the surface and feed on plankton and other aquatic creatures. Bluegill try to spend most of their time in water from 60 to 80 °F, tend to have a home range of about 320 square feet during nonreproductive months, they enjoy heat, but do not like direct sunlight - they live in deeper water, but will linger near the water surface in the morning to stay warm. Bluegill are found in schools of 10 to 20 fish, these schools will include other panfish, such as crappie and smallmouth bass. Young bluegills' diet consists of rotifers and water fleas; the adult diet consists of aquatic insect larvae, but can include crayfish, leeches and other small fish. If food is scarce, bluegill will feed on aquatic vegetation, if scarce enough, will feed on their own eggs or offspring; as bluegill spend a great deal of time near the surface of water, they can feed on surface bugs. Most bluegills feed during daylight hours, with a feeding peak being observed in the morning and evening.
Feeding location tends to be a balance between predator abundance. Bluegill use gill bands of small teeth to ingest their food. During summer months, bluegills consume 3.2 percent of their body weight each day. To capture prey, bluegills use a suction system. Prey comes in with this water. Only a limited amount of water is able to be suctioned, so the fish must get within 1.75 centimeters of the prey. In turn, bluegill are prey to many larger species, including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, yellow perch, walleye and larger bluegill. Herons and otters have been witnessed catching bluegill in shallow water. However, the shape of the fish makes them hard to swallow. Bluegills have the ability to travel and change directions at high speeds by means of synchronized fin movements, they use notched caudal fins, soft dorsal fins, body undulations, pectoral fins to move forward. Having a notched caudal fin allows them to accelerate quickly; the speed of their forward motion depends on the strength of which they adduct fins.
The flat, slender body of
Inflow (hydrology)
In hydrology, the inflow of a body of water is the source of the water in the body of water. It can refer to the average volume of incoming water in unit time, it is contrasted with outflow. All bodies of water have multiple inflows, but one inflow may predominate and be the largest source of water. However, in many cases, no single inflow will predominate and there will be multiple primary inflows. For a lake, the inflow may be a river or stream that flows into the lake. Inflow may be speaking, not flows, but rather precipitation, like rain. Inflow can be used to refer to groundwater recharge; the dictionary definition of inflow at Wiktionary
