No abstract

Although climate warming is expected to benefit temperate ectotherms by lengthening the summer growing season, declines in reproductive success following short, warm winters may counter such positive effects. Here we present long-term (1973–2010) field patterns for Lake Erie yellow perch, Perca flavescens, which show that failed annual recruitment events followed short, warm winters. Subsequent laboratory experimentation and field investigations revealed how reduced reproductive success following short, warm winters underlie these observed field patterns. Following short winters, females spawn at warmer temperatures and produce smaller eggs that both hatch at lower rates and produce smaller larvae than females exposed to long winters. Our research suggests that continued climate warming can lead to unanticipated, negative effects on temperate fish populations.

Seasonal degradation of aquatic habitats from hypoxia occurs in numerous freshwater and coastal marine systems and can result in direct mortality or displacement of fish. Yet, fishery landings from these systems are frequently unresponsive to changes in the severity and extent of hypoxia, and population-scale effects have been difficult to measure except in extreme hypoxic conditions with hypoxia-sensitive species. We investigated fine-scale temporal and spatial variability in dissolved oxygen in Lake Erie as it related to fish distribution and catch efficiencies of both active (bottom trawls) and passive (trap nets) fishing gears. Temperature and dissolved oxygen loggers placed near the edge of the hypolimnion exhibited much higher than expected variability. Hypoxic episodes of variable durations were frequently punctuated by periods of normoxia, consistent with high-frequency internal waves. High-resolution interpolations of water quality and hydroacoustic surveys suggest that fish habitat is compressed during hypoxic episodes, resulting in higher fish densities near the edges of hypoxia. At fixed locations with passive commercial fishing gear, catches with the highest values occurred when bottom waters were hypoxic for intermediate proportions of time. Proximity to hypoxia explained significant variation in bottom trawl catches, with higher catch rates near the edge of hypoxia. These results emphasize how hypoxia may elevate catch rates in various types of fishing gears, leading to a lack of association between indices of hypoxia and fishery landings. Increased catch rates of fish at the edges of hypoxia have important implications for stock assessment models that assume catchability is spatially homogeneous.

Mercury (Hg) cycling in estuaries is complex, and little is known about the extent of Hg bioaccumulation in the ecologically diverse fishes that inhabit coastal areas. Using tissue analysis combined with otolith microchemistry, analysis of Hg concentration in common prey species, diet analysis, and age-andgrowth analysis, we investigated seasonal and spatial trends of Hg accumulation in largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides and southern flounder Paralichthys lethostigma inhabiting the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta, Alabama. The Hg concentrations in largemouth bass (which are known to have high site fidelity) were lowest at downstream, low-salinity estuarine areas and highest at upstream freshwater areas. Conversely, southern flounder, which have a highly variable migratory life history across salinity gradients, had Hg concentrations that were similar across the study area and lower than those for largemouth bass. Both largemouth bass and southern flounder had negative relationships between individual salinity exposure (as indicated by otolith strontium : calcium ratios) and tissue Hg concentration, although considerable variability existed. Concentrations of Hg in two common prey species, the bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and blue crab Callinectes sapidus, suggested that vertebrate prey had higher Hg concentrations than invertebrate prey. Largemouth bass upstream consumed a higher proportion of vertebrates than those downstream, so differences in prey consumption may partially explain Hg concentration differences across the salinity gradient. However, additional research is required to understand the mechanism responsible for the negative relationship between Hg concentration and salinity exposure.