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Chemical and physical factors associated with yellow perch abundance in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: patterns within and among wetland types

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Abstract

Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide important spawning and nursery habitat as well as abundant food resources for yellow perch (Perca flavescens). We examined multiple years of fyke-net data from wetlands along Lakes Huron and Michigan to describe yellow perch distribution in drowned river mouth (DRM) and coastal fringing systems. Principal components analysis and multi-response permutation procedures indicated that DRM wetlands (yellow perch CPUE = 0.2) were eutrophic systems that often exhibit high temperatures and periods of hypoxia, whereas coastal fringing wetlands (yellow perch CPUE = 32.1) were less productive. Among the coastal fringing systems, Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron), displayed characteristics of being more productive and had more yellow perch. Most yellow perch captured in Saginaw Bay were age-0, suggesting that it was an important nursery habitat. Among DRM ecosystems, we found that the downstream lake macrohabitats contained more yellow perch than upstream wetlands; however, there was no significant difference in abiotic characteristics to explain the higher catches in lakes. We hypothesize that yellow perch were more prevalent in wetlands with intermediate productivity during summer because these systems provide abundant food resources without the harsh conditions associated with highly eutrophic wetlands.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for the various studies that generated this dataset came from the Great Lakes Commission, Great Lakes Protection Fund, Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ADP was funded by a research assistantship from Grand Valley State University’s Annis Water Resources Institute. Dr. Thomas Burton provided valuable guidance and insight on this research. We thank members of the Burton, Ruetz, and Uzarski labs for assistance with fish sampling and chemical analysis. Kevin Wyatt and two anonymous reviewers offered valuable comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.

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  1. Aaron D. Parker

    Present address: Carterville Fishery Resources Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 9053 Route 148, Marion, IL, 62959, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, 740 West Shoreline Drive, Muskegon, MI, 49441, USA

    Aaron D. Parker, Matthew J. Cooper & Carl R. Ruetz III

  2. Department of Biology, Institute for Great Lakes Research, CMU Biological Station, Central Michigan University, 156 Brooks Hall, Mount Pleasant, MI, 48859, USA

    David P. Coulter & Donald G. Uzarski

  3. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, 107 Galvin Life Sciences, Notre Dame, IN, 46556, USA

    Matthew J. Cooper

  4. Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 195 Marsteller Rd, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA

    David P. Coulter

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Correspondence to Aaron D. Parker.

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Parker, A.D., Cooper, M.J., Ruetz, C.R. et al. Chemical and physical factors associated with yellow perch abundance in Great Lakes coastal wetlands: patterns within and among wetland types. Wetlands Ecol Manage 20, 137–150 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11273-012-9250-x

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