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RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HABITAT QUALITY AND DENSITY OF JUVENILE WINTER FLOUNDER
Citation:
Meng, L, G Cicchetti, AND S. Raciti. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN HABITAT QUALITY AND DENSITY OF JUVENILE WINTER FLOUNDER. Presented at Estuarine Research Federation Conference, Seattle, WA, September 14-18, 2003.
Description:
We used a digital video camera mounted to a 1-m beam trawl together with an attached continuous recording YSI sonde and GPS unit to quantify juvenile winter flounder (Pseudopleuronectes americanus) densities and fish habitat. The YSI sonde measured temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, depth, turbidity, and chlorophyll a. We hypothesized that human-induced habitat alteration would correlate with a decrease in juvenile winter flounder densities. We sampled random locations derived from digitization of the shoreline of the West Passage of Narragansett Bay and three of Rhode Island's coastal lagoons. The camera/beam trawl/YSI unit was deployed at the water's edge, then towed out perpendicular to shore. We sampled 160 transects in June and July 2002 and 2003. Winter flounder densities were 20 times greater in the coastal lagoons. Transects were categorized into habitat types (beach, marsh, cobble beach, rip-rap, rock, industrial, marina, macroalgae, unvegetated, and eelgrass). In the bay, densities were highest near the city of Providence and other semi-enclosed areas in rip-rap, industrial, and marina habitats. These areas had high levels of nutrients, high chlorophyll a, and mud and muddy-sand substrates. In the lagoons, densities were highest in macroalgae and unvegetated areas, although larger individuals were taken in eelgrass.