Resilience of a tropical sport fish population to a severe cold event varies across five estuaries in southern Florida

P W Stevens,B L Winner,D A Blewett,J S Rehage,J A Whittington,R E Boucek,R Paperno,J M Young

doi:10.1002/ecs2.1400

P W Stevens, B L Winner + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1400

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Abstract

AbstractFor species that are closely managed, understanding population resilience to environmental and anthropogenic disturbances (i.e., recovery trajectories across broad spatial areas) can guide which suite of management actions are available to mitigate any impacts. During January 2010, an extreme cold event in south Florida caused widespread mortality of common snook, Centropomus undecimalis, a popular sport fish. Interpretation of trends using fishery‐independent monitoring data in five south Florida estuaries showed that changes in catch rates of adult snook (>500 mm standard length) varied between no effects postevent to large effects and 4‐yr recoveries. The reasons for the variation across estuaries are unknown, but are likely related to differences in estuary geomorphology and habitat availability (e.g., extent of deep rivers and canals) and differences in the proportions of behavior contingents (i.e., segments of the population that use divergent movement tactics) that place snook in different areas of the estuary during winter. Emerging awareness of the presence of behavior contingents, identification of overwintering sites, and improvements of abundance indices in remote nursery habitats should provide a better understanding of population resilience to disturbance events for snook. Given that changes in the frequency of short‐lived, severe cold events are currently unknown, the findings and management actions described here for a tropical species living at the edge of its distribution should be useful to scientists forecasting the effects of climate change.

Highlights

Extreme events can strongly affect population and community structure by causing physiological stress in affected species, mass mortality events, and reordering of species dominance (Jentsch et al 2007, Smith 2011, Boucek and Rehage 2014a, Hoover et al 2014)
Trends in catch per unit effort (CPUE) from standardized programs were generated for adult snook
As expected for a tropical species at the edge of its distribution (Boucek et al, in press), the extreme 2010 cold event had a negative effect on tropical snook in southern Florida

Summary

Introduction

Extreme events can strongly affect population and community structure by causing physiological stress in affected species, mass mortality events, and reordering of species dominance (Jentsch et al 2007, Smith 2011, Boucek and Rehage 2014a, Hoover et al 2014). Common extreme events include severe storms (Greenwood et al 2006), algal blooms (Flaherty and Landsberg 2011), and anthropogenic disturbances such as chemical spills (Rooker et al 2013). The severity of these events is a function of the characteristics of the disturbance and the response of the species affected (Smith 2011). Stochastic cold events can have deleterious effects on fish populations in coastal areas, especially for tropical species that are living at the edge of their distribution (Gilmore et al 1978, Boucek et al, in press). Refuge in close proximity to the area of disturbance aids in population recovery by

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