Fish for climate monitoring

I found a page on fish species management in NH and found something interesting their. Mentions of using range chifts in creek chub, fallfish, and longnose sucker as means to monitor climate change. I heard of observations in marine species range changes in response to climate change, but never using fish themselves to track it. Is this new?

http://www.wildlife....nservation.html

New Hampshire is far enough north that it's still recovering from the most recent glaciation which explains much of its depauperate fish fauna. Species have been slowly moving north for the last 13,000 years or so, there's no reason it shouldn't continue especially if there's any kind of warming trend. I wouldn't count on Bluenose Shiners any time soon, but I guess you never know.

New Hampshire is far enough north that it's still recovering from the most recent glaciation which explains much of its depauperate fish fauna. Species have been slowly moving north for the last 13,000 years or so, there's no reason it shouldn't continue especially if there's any kind of warming trend. I wouldn't count on Bluenose Shiners any time soon, but I guess you never know.

Most of the movement the article measures is upstream as warmwater species replace coldwater species.

That is made more of a challenge due to geographic isolation due to mountains and ocean. Since sea levels continue to rise, unless more species are moving up from Connecticut, we are largely dependant on human meddling or mountain erosion to give access.

Largely, but I found a couple oddities in the range maps in Freshwater Fishes of North America volume one. The map for genus Exoglossum shows it extending from vermont to the NH border in a thin finger. Genus's Hudsonius and Hybognathus are shown with their ranges stopping at the VT/NH border. This implies (if the maps are right, I seen enough field guides to know that is not always true, but this book is no field guide and seems better researched) some fish had somehow crossed the mountains.

EDIT: Just did a google search. Cannot find a genus named Hudsonius, but Notropis Hudsonius the Spottail Shiner is already here as is hybognathus the silvery minnow if conflicting reports are true (most recent say yes). That just means we are waiting on Exoglossum the cutlips minnow. Any chance of fantail, logperch, greenside darters, or stonerollers crossing the mountains?

Now if only ten thousand years of island like isolation leads to island like speciation.

(Looks at the slimy sculpin and taps my foot impatiently, our other two early arrivals gave it a shot and did not survive man, he was here early too, it's his turn now).

Looks like darters are crossing the mountains in Tennessee and Virginia. By what means? Right now it is only speculation.

Never underestimate natural range expansions over time, and I don't mean a ten year time frame. North America is still recovering from the most recent glaciation, not even counting direct and indirect human influences. The NH coast is flat and continuous with southern New England so right there you have an avenue.

Lot's variables, tough to track cold H2O critters, often sensitive to other than directly temp related issues.