Abstract
BackgroundDefining the spatial distribution, home range, and movement patterns of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is important to managers and decision-makers given the large migration potential and potamodromous behavior exhibited by the species. A remnant population of lake sturgeon remains in the far eastern basin of Lake Erie and although recent efforts have estimated the population size, described the age distribution, and identified a primary spawning site no study to date has examined the spatial distribution or movements of individuals within this population. Between 2014 and 2018, we acoustically tagged 59 adult lake sturgeon, captured in the Buffalo Harbor area, and monitored their large-scale movements throughout Lake Erie with the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry System and small-scale movements with a Vemco Positioning System in the Buffalo Harbor area. After dividing Lake Erie into seven sections, we ran a multi-state mark–recapture model to examine the movement rates into and out of the eastern most section of the lake. Within a heavily utilized lake section, in the Buffalo Harbor area, we identified home ranges with our Vemco Positioning System for each season and year using averaged Brownian bridge movement models.ResultsAlthough some sturgeon demonstrated large-scale movements, traversing the entirety of Lake Erie, the majority of individuals spent their time in the eastern basin of the lake. Home ranges appeared to vary among seasons, but were consistent across years with lake sturgeon selecting the northeastern, rocky, and shallow area of our array during pre-spawning and spawning seasons and leaving our array, or selecting a trough running along the northwestern portion of our array comprising sand and bedrock, in the summer and fall seasons.ConclusionsDocumenting these large-scale movements aligns with previous findings that lake sturgeon on either end of the lake are genetically similar and demonstrates lake sturgeon in the eastern basin exhibit strong philopatry. Our small-scale movement models provide managers with spatial reference points, in the form of utilization distributions, indicating heavily used areas by lake sturgeon within seasons. Future studies should examine what parameters are driving site selection in these areas.
Highlights
Defining the spatial distribution, home range, and movement patterns of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is important to managers and decision-makers given the large migration potential and potamodromous behavior exhibited by the species
Large‐scale movement Our large-scale movement analysis showed that lake sturgeon displayed high site-fidelity to eastern basin of Lake Erie, with greater than 50% of unique individual detections located in Section-1 during any given season
Overall, our study found that lake sturgeon tagged in Buffalo Harbor have a strong tendency to remain in the eastern basin of Lake Erie
Summary
Home range, and movement patterns of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is important to managers and decision-makers given the large migration potential and potamodromous behavior exhibited by the species. Between 2014 and 2018, we acoustically tagged 59 adult lake sturgeon, captured in the Buffalo Harbor area, and monitored their large-scale movements throughout Lake Erie with the Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Sys‐ tem and small-scale movements with a Vemco Positioning System in the Buffalo Harbor area. Passive acoustic telemetry allows for monitoring of multiple tagged individuals and can cover vast spatial areas depending on the acoustic receiver array design. Passive acoustic telemetry provides a means to monitor broad spatial areas and circumvents the labor intensive demands of active tracking, the costs associated with developing large-scale passive acoustic arrays has prevented many studies from examining large-scale animal movements. The development of acoustic telemetry networks (e.g., Integrated Marine observation system (IMOS), Great Lakes Acoustic Telemetry Observation System (GLATOS), Atlantic Cooperative Telemetry (ACT), Ocean Tracking network (OTN), and Australian Ocean Data Network (AODN)) and the infrastructure they provide are diminishing these financial hurdles
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.