Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Seasonality of fish recruitment in a pulsed floodplain ecosystem: Estimation and hydrological controls

  • Published:
Environmental Biology of Fishes Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Hydrological variation is believed to be the main density-independent factor that controls fish recruitment in floodplain ecosystems. However, our ability to fully understand these controls is greatly impeded by the size-selective nature of sampling gear. To illustrate the benefits of estimating the effects of size-selective bias on population parameters, we used a cohort analysis to reconstruct a 20-year time series of larval/neonate abundance for five species in the Order Cyprinodontiformes along a hydrological gradient in the Florida Everglades. We applied generalized linear models to estimate recruit density and analyze size-selectivity for our sampling gear. The adjusted data resulted in a 7 to 40-fold increase in estimated recruit density, which varied seasonally at regional and local spatial scales and was greatest at the end of the wet season (October, December) for most species; no consistent seasonality in recruitment of any species was apparent in the raw data. Using the adjusted data, we detected a positive relationship between recruit density and recovery time following marsh drying events at short and intermediate-hydroperiod sites for all species. However, depth was the major hydrological driver of recruitment at long-hydroperiod sites. Within sites, we observed interspecific variation in species responses to changes in annual hydroperiod. We suggest that fisheries models can be applied to data from any meshed sampling gear to improve abundance estimates and reveal seasonal recruitment dynamics. Our use of such models revealed seasonal recruitment dynamics that were previously undetected, with implications for planning of restoration and management of the Everglades.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aarts BG, Van Den Brink FW, Nienhuis PH (2004) Habitat loss as the main cause of the slow recovery of fish faunas of regulated large rivers in Europe: the transversal floodplain gradient. River Res Appl 20:3–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Agostinho AA, Gomes LC, Veríssimo S, Okada EK (2004) Flood regime, dam regulation and fish in the upper Paraná River: effects on assemblage attributes, reproduction and recruitment. Rev Fish Biol Fish 14:11–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ala-Honkola O, Friman E, Lindstrom K (2011) Costs and benefits of polyandry in a placental poeciliid fish Heterandria formosa are in accordance with the parent–offspring conflict theory of placentation. J Evol Biol 24:2600–2610. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02383.x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson JT (1988) A review of size dependent survival during pre-recruit stages of fishes in relation to recruitment. J Northwest Atl Fish Sci 8:55–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arthington AH, Balcombe SR (2011) Extreme flow variability and the ‘boom and bust’ecology of fish in arid-zone floodplain rivers: a case history with implications for environmental flows, conservation and management. Ecohydrology 4:708–720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balcombe SR, Arthington AH, Foster ND, Thoms MC, Wilson GG, Bunn SE (2006) Fish assemblages of an Australian dryland river: abundance, assemblage structure and recruitment patterns in the Warrego River, Murray–Darling Basin. Mar Freshw Res 57:619–633

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Balcombe S, Bunn S, Arthington A, Fawcett J, McKenzie-Smith F, Wright A (2007) Fish larvae, growth and biomass relationships in an Australian arid zone river: links between floodplains and waterholes. Freshw Biol 52:2385–2398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beyger L, Orrego R, Guchardi J, Holdway D (2012) The acute and chronic effects of endosulfan pulse-exposure on Jordanella floridae (Florida flagfish) over one complete life-cycle. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 76:71–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2011.09.015

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Blackhart K, Stanton DG, Shimada A (2006) NOAA fisheries glossary. United States Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

    Google Scholar 

  • Bolat Y, Demirci A, Mazlum Y (2010) Size selectivity of traps (Fyke-nets) of different mesh size on the narrow-clawed crayfish, Astacus Leptodactylus (Eschscholtz, 1823)(Decapoda, Astacidae) in Eschscholtz Lake, Turkey. Crustaceana 83:1349–1361. https://doi.org/10.1163/001121610x536969

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bolland J, Nunn A, Lucas M, Cowx I (2015) The habitat use of young-of-the-year fishes during and after floods of varying timing and magnitude in a constrained lowland river. Ecol Eng 75:434–440

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (2004) Multimodel inference: understanding AIC and BIC in model selection. Sociol Methods Res 33:261–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cadrin SX, Vaughan DS (1997) Retrospective analysis of virtual population estimates for Atlantic menhaden stock assessment. Oceanogr Lit Rev 12:1553

    Google Scholar 

  • Coggins LG Jr, Pine WE III, Walters CJ, Martell SJ (2006) Age-structured mark–recapture analysis: a virtual-population-analysis-based model for analyzing age-structured capture–recapture data. N Am J Fish Manag 26:201–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Conrow R, Zale AV (1985) Early life history stages of fishes of Orange Lake, Florida: an illustrated identification manual.  Florida Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Technical Report 15. University of Florida, Gainesville

  • Frusher S, Hoenig J, Gardner C (2003) Have changes in selectivity masked recruitment declines in crustacean trap fisheries? Fish Res 65:467–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Furness AI (2015) The evolution of an annual life cycle in killifish: adaptation to ephemeral aquatic environments through embryonic diapause. Biol Rev 91: 796–812. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12194

  • Gabr M, Fujimori Y, Shimizu S, Miura T (2007) Behaviour analysis of undersized fish escaping through square meshes and separating grids in simulated trawling experiment. Fish Res 85:112–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2007.01.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey PC, Arthington AH, Pearson RG, Karim F, Wallace J (2017) Fish larvae and recruitment patterns in floodplain lagoons of the Australian Wet Tropics. Mar Freshw Res 68:964–979

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goss C, Loftus W, Trexler J (2013) Seasonal fish dispersal in ephemeral wetlands of the Florida Everglades. Wetlands:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-013-0375-3

  • Goss CW, Loftus WF, Trexler JC (2014) Seasonal fish dispersal in ephemeral wetlands of the Florida Everglades, Wetlands. 34(1):147–157

  • Haake PW, Dean JM (1983) Age and growth of four Everglades fishes using otolith techniques. National Park Service, South Florida Research Center, Everglades National Park,

  • Habtes S, Muller-Karger FE, Roffer MA, Lamkin JT, Muhling BA (2014) A comparison of sampling methods for larvae of medium and large epipelagic fish species during spring SEAMAP ichthyoplankton surveys in the Gulf of Mexico. Limnol Oceanogr: Methods 12:86–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herrmann B, Sistiaga MB, Nielsen KN, Larsen RB (2012) Understanding the size selectivity of redfish (Sebastes spp.) in North Atlantic trawl codends

  • Hoch JM, Sokol ER, Parker AD, Trexler JC (2015) Migration strategies vary in space, Time, and Among Species in the Small-fish Metacommunity of the Everglades. Copeia 2015:157–169

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Houde E (1989) Subtleties and episodes in the early life of fishes. J Fish Biol 35:29–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Humphries P, King AJ, Koehn JD (1999) Fish, flows and flood plains: links between freshwater fishes and their environment in the Murray-Darling river system, Austrelia. Environ Biol Fishes 56:129–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jordan F, Coyne S, Trexler JC (1997) Sampling fishes in vegetated habitats: effects of habitat structure on sampling characteristics of the 1-m(2) throw trap. Trans Am Fish Soc 126:1012–1020. https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1997)126<1012:sfivhe>2.3.co;2

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Junk WJ, Bayley PB, Sparks RE (1989) The flood pulse concept in river-floodplain systems. Canadian Special Publication of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 106:110–127

    Google Scholar 

  • Jurado-Molina J, Gatica C, Arancibia H, Neira S, Alarcón R (2016) A multispecies virtual population analysis for the Southern Chilean Demersal Fishery. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 8:350–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman L, Ebersole J, Beets J, McIvor CC (1992) A key phase in the recruitment dynamics of coral reef fishes: post-settlement transition. Environ Biol Fish 34:109–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kibria G, Ahmed KKU (2005) Diversity of selective and nonselective fishing gear and their impact on inland fisheries in Bangladesh. NAGA 28:43–48

    Google Scholar 

  • King A, Crook D (2002) Evaluation of a sweep net electrofishing method for the collection of small fish and shrimp in lotic freshwater environments. Hydrobiologia 472:223–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King A, Humphries P, Lake P (2003) Fish recruitment on floodplains: the roles of patterns of flooding and life history characteristics. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 60:773–786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Konnert TJ (2002) The effects of hydroperiod on the life history parameters of Poecilia latipinna and Heterandria formosa (Poechiliidae) in the Florida Everglades. Master's Thesis, Florida International University

  • Lake PS (2011) Drought and aquatic ecosystems: effects and responses. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lapointe MF, Peterman RM, Rothschild BJ (1992) Variable natural mortality rates inflate variance of recruitments estimated from virtual population analysis (VPA). Can J Fish Aquat Sci 49:2020–2027

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lassen H, Medley P (2001) Virtual population analysis: a practical manual for stock assessment. vol 400. Food & Agriculture Org.,

  • Liu Z, Volin JC, Dianne Owen V, Pearlstine LG, Allen JR, Mazzotti FJ, Higer AL (2009) Validation and ecosystem applications of the EDEN water-surface model for the Florida Everglades. Ecohydrology 2:182–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livingston PA, Jurado-Molina J (2000) A multispecies virtual population analysis of the eastern Bering Sea. ICES J Mar Sci 57:294–299

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacLennan DN (1992) Fishing gear selectivity: an overview. Fish Res 13:201–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maunder MN, Punt AE (2013) A review of integrated analysis in fisheries stock assessment. Fish Res 142:61–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millar RB, Fryer RJ (1999) Estimating the size-selection curves of towed gears, traps, nets and hooks. Rev Fish Biol Fish 9:89–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller B, Kendall AW (2009) Early life history of marine fishes. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Neal JW, Adelsberger CM, Lochmann SE (2012) A comparison of larval fish sampling methods for tropical streams. Marine and Coastal Fisheries 4:23–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nordlie FG (2000) Patterns of reproduction and development of selected resident teleosts of Florida salt marshes. Hydrobiologia 434:165–182. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1004073125007

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Obaza A, DeAngelis DL, Trexler JC (2011) Using data from an encounter sampler to model fish dispersal. J Fish Biol 78:495–513. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2010.02867.x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pope J (1972) An investigation of the accuracy of virtual population analysis using cohort analysis. ICNAF Research Bulletin 9:65–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Porch CE, Turner SC, Powers JE (2001) Virtual population analyses of Atlantic bluefin tuna with alternative models of transatlantic migration: 1970-1997. Col Vol Sci Pap ICCAT 52:1022–1045

    Google Scholar 

  • Reis EG, Pawson MG (1999) Fish morphology and estimating selectivity by gillnets. Fish Res 39:263–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-7836(98)00199-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rudstam LG, Magnuson JJ, Tonn WM (1984) Size selectivity of passive fishing gear: a correction for encounter probability applied to gill nets. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 41:1252–1255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schlechte JW, Bodine KA, Daugherty DJ, Binion GR (2016) Size selectivity of multifilament gill nets for sampling Alligator Gar: modeling the effects on population metrics. N Am J Fish Manag 36:630–638

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sistiaga M, Herrmann B, Nielsen KN, Larsen RB (2011) Understanding limits to cod and haddock separation using size selectivity in a multispecies trawl fishery: an application of FISHSELECT. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 68:927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Telis PA (2006) The Everglades Depth Estimation Network (EDEN) for Support of Ecological and Biological Assessments: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2006-3087, 4p

  • Trexler JC, Loftus WF, Jordan F, Chick JH, Kandl KL, McElroy TC, Bass O (2002) Ecological scale and its implications for freshwater fishes in the Florida Everglades the Everglades, Florida bay, and coral reefs of the Florida keys: an ecosystem Sourcebook CRC Press, Boca Raton:153-181

  • Trexler JC, Loftus WF, Chick JH (2003) Setting and monitoring restoration goals in the absence of historical data: the case of fishes in the Florida Everglades monitoring ecosystems: interdisciplinary approaches for evaluating ecoregional initiatives Island Press, Washington, DC:351-376

  • Winemiller KO (2004) Floodplain river food webs: generalizations and implications for fisheries management. In: Proceedings of the second international symposium on the management of large rivers for fisheries. Food and Agriculture Organization & Mekong River Commission, FAO Regional, pp 285–309

  • Wolski LF, Trexler JC, Nelson EB, Philippi T, Perry SA (2004) Assessing researcher impacts from a long-term sampling program of wetland communities in the Everglades National Park, Florida, USA Freshw Biol 49:1381–1390 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.2004.01256.x

  • Zeug S, Winemiller K (2008) Relationships between hydrology, spatial heterogeneity, and fish recruitment dynamics in a temperate floodplain river. River Res Appl 24:90–102

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the many technicians, both past and present, who worked tirelessly in the field to collect the data used in this analysis. We are grateful to Dr. Yuying Zhang for introducing the concepts and equations needed to conduct the cohort analyses. Two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on a penultimate version of this paper that improved the final version. We also thank Jeff Kline, Everglades National Park, for making available data from sites 6, 23, and 50, and for his support of this project. This work was funded by a number of Cooperative Agreements between Everglades National Park and FIU (most recently by Critical Ecosystem Science Initiative Task Agreement P06AC00043). All animal use was approved by the FIU Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC-16-34). This material was developed in collaboration with the Florida Coastal Everglades Long-Term Ecological Research program under National Science Foundation Grant No. DEB-1237517. This is contribution No. 895 from the Southeastern Environmental Research Center in the Institute of Water & Environment at Florida International University.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, 33199, USA

    John V. Gatto & Joel C. Trexler

Authors
  1. John V. Gatto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Joel C. Trexler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John V. Gatto.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gatto, J.V., Trexler, J.C. Seasonality of fish recruitment in a pulsed floodplain ecosystem: Estimation and hydrological controls. Environ Biol Fish 102, 595–613 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-019-00856-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-019-00856-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation