Abstract. For species that are closely managed, understanding population resilience to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances (i.e., recovery trajectories across broad spatial areas) can guide which suite of management actions are available to mitigate any impacts. During January 2010, an extreme cold event in south Florida caused widespread mortality of common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, a popular sport fish. Interpretation of trends using fishery-independent monitoring data in five south Florida estuaries showed that changes in catch rates of adult snook (>500 mm standard length) varied between no effects postevent to large effects and 4-yr recoveries. The reasons for the variation across estuaries are unknown, but are likely related to differences in estuary geomorphology and habitat availability (e.g., extent of deep rivers and canals) and differences in the proportions of behavior contingents (i.e., segments of the population that use divergent movement tactics) that place snook in different areas of the estuary during winter. Emerging awareness of the presence of behavior contingents, identification of overwintering sites, and improvements of abundance indices in remote nursery habitats should provide a better understanding of population resilience to disturbance events for snook. Given that changes in the frequency of short-lived, severe cold events are currently unknown, the findings and management actions described here for a tropical species living at the edge of its distribution should be useful to scientists forecasting the effects of climate change.

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Quantitative estimates of relative abundance, spatial and temporal distribution, and habitat preference of common snook Centropomus undecimalis along shoreline habitats in four Florida estuarine areas were determined. Significant differences in the relative abundance of common snook among the estuarine areas suggested marked variation in common snook population abundance and densities on a regional scale. The highest adjusted mean relative abundance of common snook occurred in the southern Indian River Lagoon (4.68 fish/haul; SE = 0.08), followed by Tampa Bay (3.36 fish/haul; SE = 0.11), Charlotte Harbor (2.13 fish/haul; SE = 0.10), and the northern Indian River Lagoon (0.76 fish/haul; SE = 0.21). Several common factors (e.g., mangrove and seagrass habitat, salinity, and water temperature) among the estuarine areas were linked with common snook relative abundance and distributions, allowing us to better understand how these fish interact with their environment in different regions of Florida.

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