Age-0 Yellow Perch Growth and Its Relationship to Temperature

Abstract

Temperature is known to be an important determinant of growth, but its influence on the growth of juvenile yellow perch Perca flavescens has not been unambiguously quantified. In this study, temperature data loggers were deployed in several northern Alberta lakes, and the data collected were used to compute the cumulative number of days for which water temperature exceeded the 13.5°C minimum temperature required for yellow perch growth. Tow-net and seine samples of young of the year (age-0 fish) were obtained to describe growth in fork length throughout the summer. Length and degree-day data were used to test the importance of temperature as a determinant of growth. A significant relationship was obtained and validated with data from previous studies of age-0 yellow perch in Manitoba. The importance of temperature was further assessed over a broader geographic range with the use of latitude as a surrogate for temperature and published data on end-of-season lengths. Though not the sole determinant of among-population variability, latitude was found to have a significant effect on growth. Collectively the results suggest that temperature has both a micro- and a macro-scale effect on determining age-0 yellow perch growth.