Abstract
ESR Endangered Species Research Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsSpecials ESR 37:195-205 (2018) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00923 Seascape connectivity of Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi population units across the northern Gulf of Mexico Page E. Vick1,*, Mark S. Peterson1, William T. Slack2 1Department of Coastal Science, School of Ocean Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS 39564, USA 2US Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory EEA, Vicksburg, MS 39180, USA *Corresponding author: page.vick@noaa.gov ABSTRACT: Critical habitat was designated in 2003 for federally threatened anadromous Gulf sturgeon to aid in population recovery. This study examined overwintering Gulf sturgeon spatial use and movement through critical habitat monitored by the Ship Island acoustic array from 2011 to 2015. Previous studies observed western population Gulf sturgeon (Pearl and Pascagoula rivers) overwintering near the ends and within the passes of the barrier islands of the Mississippi Sound, USA. Recent telemetry studies detected eastern population fish (Escambia, Blackwater, Yellow, and Choctawhatchee rivers) overwintering as far west as Mobile Bay, Alabama; however, this study is the first to observe eastern population fish overwintering in western population critical habitat associated with the Ship Island array. Use of overwintering habitat was compared using mean active days detected and rate of travel to and from the array. There was no significant difference in mean active days of population units on the array; however, travel rate to the array from natal drainages was significantly different, with eastern population individuals traveling at a faster rate compared to western population individuals. Post hoc tests indicated that individuals from the Blackwater River had a significantly higher travel rate compared to Pascagoula River individuals. We documented large-scale seascape connectivity among population units of Gulf sturgeon across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Although large-scale seascape connectivity promotes mixing among population units and an exchange of marine nutrients into riverine environments, large-scale migration poses an issue for endangered species such as Gulf sturgeon, as there is greater risk of bycatch mortality and size-specific predation. KEY WORDS: Acoustic telemetry · Threatened species · Critical overwintering habitat · Migration Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Vick PE, Peterson MS, Slack WT (2018) Seascape connectivity of Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi population units across the northern Gulf of Mexico. Endang Species Res 37:195-205. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00923 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in ESR Vol. 37. Online publication date: October 29, 2018 Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796 Copyright © 2018 Inter-Research.
Highlights
Life history characteristics and environmental impacts combine to slow the recovery of threatened Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi populations
Fish detected on the array represented both the eastern and western population units of Gulf sturgeon from 5 of the 8 core river drainages (Manson & Hogarth 2003)
There was no significant difference in active days between western and eastern population units (Z = −0.635, p = 0.525)
Summary
Life history characteristics and environmental impacts combine to slow the recovery of threatened Gulf sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus desotoi populations. The current distribution is grouped regionally into western (Pearl and Pascagoula river systems) and eastern (Escambia, Yellow, Blackwater, Choctawhatchee, Apalachicola and Suwannee river systems) population units separated geographically by Mobile Bay, Alabama (Dugo et al 2004) These regional groupings or population units are supported by population structure; drainages within the same population unit show close genetic relationships for the Gulf sturgeon, as the population structure of the species occurs at the drainage level (Dugo et al 2004). All adult and sub-adult fish immigrate into freshwater rivers and repeat this annual cycle (Fox et al 2000, Heise et al 2004, Havrylkoff et al 2012) Maintaining this connectivity to all environments is essential to Gulf sturgeon population recovery (Manson & Hogarth 2003)
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