Flow ecology of invasive suckermouth catfish in urbanized ridge-to-reef systems on O’ahu, Hawai’i

The effects of flow regimes on the ability of invasive species to establish and maintain populations in the ridge to reef (R2R) systems common to oceanic islands is not well understood. The hydrology of the relatively short, high-gradient, and flashy R2R streams of oceanic islands may be extremely different from that of the continental watersheds invasive species originate from and thus may exert a stronger influence on their ecology. Our objective was to evaluate the effects of annual variability in flow conditions on the growth and recruitment of invasive armored Suckermouth Catfish Hypostomus c.f. watwata in Hawaiian streams.

Citation

Grabowski T.B., Tsang Y., Bartz D., Yap C., Falke J., Bellmore J.R., Fellman J.B.. 2026. Flow ecology of invasive suckermouth catfish in urbanized ridge-to-reef systems on O’ahu, Hawai’i. Frontiers in Environmental Science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2026.1754403.