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Site fidelity and seasonal habitat preferences of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) in a temperate regulated reservoir

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Abstract

A wide range of fish species navigate and return to previously selected habitats across time scales ranging from days to years. While this ability may be challenged in anthropogenically disturbed systems, such as temperate regulated reservoirs, where littoral freezing/drying may alter critical habitats, no work has yet been conducted to determine if fish within these systems are able to home to specific habitats. In addition, most studies have examined site fidelity over a limited time scale. In this study, we investigated the long-term movement and habitat utilization of largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides (Lacépède, 1802) using a combination of radiotelemetry and habitat mapping across nine consecutive seasons in a winter drawdown reservoir to examine seasonal population- and individual-level spatial clustering and site fidelity. Largemouth bass navigated across large distances through spatially and temporally disturbed habitat with exceptional inter-annual site fidelity during winter, spring, and summer. Drawdown constrained the availability of preferred winter habitat, concentrated fish, and rendered them potentially vulnerable to overexploitation, predation, and competition. Adaptive drawdown protocols should be developed that incorporate temporally and spatially resolved fish movement data, and variables such as available critical habitat, which are essential for maintaining fish population stability in temperate regulated reservoirs.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this project was provided by the Lake Eugenia Property Owners Association, The Municipality of Grey Highlands, Steve Rogers, and Biotactic Inc. Several people helped make this project possible through their generosity, kindness, and time including Steve Rogers, Jacquie Rogers, Peter Stern, Jerry Wilson, Gardell Wilson, Sam Bunt, Jacob Bunt, Graham Mochrie, Michael Zaharie, Roger Klein, Jeremy Webster, Dana Eddy, and several other anglers who contacted us to provide recapture data. Thanks also to Dave Stanley (OPG) for providing Lake Eugenia water level data for the period covered by this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biotactic Fisheries Research and Monitoring, Biotactic Inc., Kitchener, ON, Canada

    Christopher M. Bunt & Bailey Jacobson

  2. Department of Biology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Timothy Fernandes & Bailey McMeans

  3. Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Burlington, ON, Canada

    Luke Ridgway

Authors
  1. Christopher M. Bunt
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  2. Bailey Jacobson
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  4. Luke Ridgway
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  5. Bailey McMeans
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Contributions

CB, BJ, and TF conceived the ideas, CB designed methodology; CB and TF collected the field data; BJ and TF organized and analyzed the data; TF and LR created and analyzed the habitat and depth maps; CB, BJ, and TF interpreted results and wrote the manuscript; LR and BM contributed to the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Christopher M. Bunt.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Collection and tagging of Largemouth Bass were performed under a licence to collect fish for scientific purposes issued by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (Licence No. 1080776).

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Handling editor: Grethe Robertsen

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Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 Video SA—Description: Multi-species underwater video including largemouth bass patrolling 2.4 km away from the overwintering area on December 10 2015 Available online at: www.biotactic.com/LG1.mp4 (1705 KB)

Supplementary material 2 Video SB—Description: A school of largemouth bass swims slowly toward the camera in a v-formation under the ice at the primary overwintering area identified in Lake Eugenia on January 21 2018 Available online at: www.biotactic.com/LG2.mp4 (69831 KB)

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Bunt, C.M., Jacobson, B., Fernandes, T. et al. Site fidelity and seasonal habitat preferences of largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) in a temperate regulated reservoir. Hydrobiologia 848, 2595–2609 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04582-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-021-04582-1

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