Levi E. Solomon Andrew Bartels Steven A. DeLain Eric J. Gittinger Travis Kueter Kristopher A. Maxson John L. West James T. Lamer Hae H. Kim Quinton Phelps Kristen L. Bouska 2026 <div class=" sec"><div class="title">Objective</div><p class="chapter-para">Monitoring and assessment of nongame native fishes is limited, but conservation interest in these species is growing. Freshwater Drum<span>&nbsp;</span><i>Aplodinotus grunniens</i><span>&nbsp;</span>are a wide-ranging species that serve important functional roles and could serve as an indicator for similar but less common species. Our overall objectives were to quantify and compare population dynamic rates and life history of Freshwater Drum among study reaches in the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers and relate these metrics to hypothesized environmental and anthropogenic factors.</p></div><div class=" sec"><div class="title">Methods</div><p class="chapter-para">We integrated recently collected age data with monitoring data to estimate age and size distributions, growth curves, maturation schedules, mortality rates, and young-to-adult ratios of Freshwater Drum in six study reaches spanning 1,500 km of river. Principal component analyses and linear regression were used to relate environmental and anthropogenic gradients (latitude, commercial harvest, hydrologic dynamics, primary productivity) to life history traits and population dynamic rates.</p></div><div class=" sec"><div class="title">Results</div><p class="chapter-para">We found latitudinal gradients in life history traits and population dynamic rates whereby Freshwater Drum in upstream, higher-latitude study reaches generally exhibited later maturity, slower growth, smaller maximum size, and lower mortality rates compared with those in lower-latitude study reaches. Further, young-to-adult ratios positively corresponded with chlorophyll-<i>a</i><span>&nbsp;</span>concentration. No clear relationships were apparent between population dynamic rates and hydrologic variation or commercial harvest.</p></div><div class=" sec"><div class="title">Conclusions</div><p class="chapter-para">Latitude is an important structuring component of life history traits and population dynamics of Freshwater Drum in the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers likely due to both temperature seasonality and disturbance regimes. The presence of demographic structure in a widespread, common species such as Freshwater Drum suggests similar patterns likely exist in other long-lived native fishes.</p></div> application/pdf 10.1093/tafafs/vnag014 en Oxford University Press Life history traits and population dynamics of Freshwater Drum across large river gradients article