Abstract
Otolith strontium:calcium ratios were used to trace lifetime movements of American eels (Anguilla rostrata) captured in salt-water bays and adjoining freshwater ponds in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Eels were classified into migratory contingents based on their movement patterns. A pond with a pool-and-weir salmonid fishway and a pond drained by a low-gradient channel contained eels that had entered freshwater at all ages, but a pond with a 2.2 m vertical spillway contained only eels that had entered freshwater in the elver year. Salt-water residents were the dominant migratory contingent in salt-water bays (85% of 39), which overturns the paradigm of obligate catadromy for this species. Freshwater residency was the sole pattern found in the pond with the vertical spillway (100% of 12) and the majority contingent in the pond with the low-gradient channel (54% of 24). Inter-habitat shifting was the dominant migratory contingent in eels sampled from the pond with the pool-and-weir fishway (85% of 20). Resident eels were established in salt- and freshwater habitats by the year after their arrival in continental waters. Eels that shifted between habitats increased their rate of inter-habitat shifting with age. The high degree of plasticity in habitat use found in this study is consistent with worldwide Anguillid patterns as revealed by Sr:Ca.
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Acknowledgments
This study received support from the National Science Council, ROC (NSC 91−2313-B-002-291 and 92-2313-B-002-057). We thank Angus McLennan, Corey Muttart, Valérie Tremblay, Noella McDonald, and Robbie Moore for assistance in the laboratory and field, and Mark Grimmett for measuring chemical concentrations in water samples. Tillmann Benfey and Allen Curry provided valuable advice at all stages and improved the manuscript with their comments.
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Communicated by R.J. Thompson, St. John´s
An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0418-x
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Lamson, H.M., Shiao, JC., Iizuka, Y. et al. Movement patterns of American eels (Anguilla rostrata) between salt- and freshwater in a coastal watershed, based on otolith microchemistry. Mar Biol 149, 1567–1576 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0308-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-006-0308-2