You are here:
Tracing multi-habitat support of coastal fishes
Citation:
Sierszen, M., L. Schoen, J. Hoffman, J. Kosiara, AND D. Uzarski. Tracing multi-habitat support of coastal fishes. Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, Portland, OR, February 11 - 16, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This talk will present one quantification of the ways coastal habitats support the supply of fisheries ecosystem services. Stable isotope analyses of biota from coastal wetland and nearshore zones indicate that coastal fishes obtain substantial nutritional support from habitats other than those in which they were captured. Further, otolith microchemical analyses showed that coastal fishes have developed a variety of life-history strategies in which multiple habitats are used. This work underscores the importance of protecting the range of coastal habitats that support fisheries.
Description:
Hydrologic linkages among coastal wetland and nearshore areas allow coastal fish to move among the habitats, which has led to a variety of habitat use patterns. In the Great Lakes, fine-scale microchemical analyses of yellow perch otoliths have revealed life-history categories that include permanent wetland residence, annual migrations between nearshore and wetlands, nearshore residence, and combinations thereof. We determined nutritional support of coastal fishes from 12 wetland-nearshore habitat pairs using stable isotope analyses, which revealed differences among species and systems in multi-habitat use. Substantial (> 30%) nutritional support often came from the habitat adjacent to that in which fish were captured. Disparities between occupancy information from otoliths and nutritional information from stable isotope analyses can stem from movements for functions other than foraging (e.g. spawning). Within-species variability in stable isotope ratios was traced to differences among individuals in multi-habitat foraging. Together, otolith microchemistry and isotope analyses help describe the use of multiple habitats by mobile consumers. This work underscores the importance of maintaining/restoring coastal wetlands and their hydrologic connections with adjacent habitats.