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Exploiting Habitat and Gear Patterns for Efficient Detection of Rare and Non-native Benthos and Fish in Great Lakes Coastal ecosystems
Citation:
TREBITZ, A. S., J. R. KELLY, J. HOFFMAN, G. S. PETERSON, AND C. W. WEST. Exploiting Habitat and Gear Patterns for Efficient Detection of Rare and Non-native Benthos and Fish in Great Lakes Coastal ecosystems. Aquatic Invasions. Regional Euro-Asian Biological Invasions Centre, Helsinki, Finland, 4(4):651-667, (2009).
Impact/Purpose:
To evaluate strategies for efficient early-detection monitoring via statistical and numerical analyses of fish and benthos data from a heavily invaded, spatially complex Great Lakes subsystem.
Description:
There is at present no comprehensive early-detection monitoring for exotic species in the Great Lakes, despite their continued arrival and impacts and recognition that early detection is key to effective management. We evaluated strategies for efficient early-detection monitoring via statistical and numerical analyses of fish and benthos data from a heavily invaded, spatially complex Great Lakes subsystem. Taxa accumulation curves confirm that reliable detection of new, rare taxa requires substantial sampling effort but also the potential for exploiting patchiness in distributions to increase efficiency. On a broad scale, relatively uninvasible or homogeneous areas e.g., the upstream-most portion of our system might merit reduced sampling effort. On a finer scale, richness of exotic and rare taxa differed substantially among stations in close proximity and depended on habitat attributes rather than distance to introduction points. Shallow vegetated habitats yielded the most benthic taxa but shallow open and deep habitats also contributed unique taxa, while fyke-nets (shallowest stations) yielded the most fish taxa, but electrofishing (intermediate) and trawling (deepest) also contributed unique taxa. Randomization analyses indicated that sampling should cover all the areas and habitats present, but detection rates could be maximized by biasing effort towards habitats or gear yielding the most exotic and rare taxa.
