TY - JOUR
T1 - Can habitat alteration and spring angling explain largemouth bass nest success?
AU - Wagner, Tyler
AU - Jubar, Aaron K.
AU - Bremigan, Mary T.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Chris Carman, Nick Longbucco, and Aaron Schultz for assistance in the field. Todd Wills provided valuable logistical advice. Funding for this research was provided by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division. We thank Mark Ridgway and one anonymous reviewer for comments on a previous version of this manuscript.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides nest in shallow littoral areas, making them vulnerable to negative effects of habitat alteration due to development of lake shorelines and fishing during the spring nesting period. For instance, alteration of shorelines may reduce the quality and abundance of nesting habitat, and the high visibility of nests and the aggressive guarding behavior of nesting males increase their vulnerability to fishing. In 2004, we monitored nest distribution and success and quantified local nest habitat features, lakewide angler effort, and lakeshore development patterns in five Michigan lakes to determine the extent to which habitat alteration and fishing limit the number of nests that produce swim-up fry. Lakes spanned a range of lakeshore dwelling densities (8-22 dwellings/km), allowing us to determine the extent to which nest success varies within and among lakes due to local (e.g., substrate and cover) and lakewide (e.g., dwellings/km and fishing effort) factors. Surprisingly, local habitat characteristics were not important determinants of the probability that a nest would produce swim-up fry (P > 0.05). At the whole-lake scale, however, nest success was negatively related to dwelling density; the probability of producing swim-up fry declined from 0.77 in the lake with the lowest dwelling density to 0.45 in the lake with the highest dwelling density (P = 0.018). Lakewide estimates of angling effort could not explain the difference among lakes, indicating the likely importance of quantifying angling at finer spatial scales. Knowledge of the magnitude of anthropogenic effects and the spatial scale at which they operate is integral for the management of black bass Micropterus spp.
AB - Largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides nest in shallow littoral areas, making them vulnerable to negative effects of habitat alteration due to development of lake shorelines and fishing during the spring nesting period. For instance, alteration of shorelines may reduce the quality and abundance of nesting habitat, and the high visibility of nests and the aggressive guarding behavior of nesting males increase their vulnerability to fishing. In 2004, we monitored nest distribution and success and quantified local nest habitat features, lakewide angler effort, and lakeshore development patterns in five Michigan lakes to determine the extent to which habitat alteration and fishing limit the number of nests that produce swim-up fry. Lakes spanned a range of lakeshore dwelling densities (8-22 dwellings/km), allowing us to determine the extent to which nest success varies within and among lakes due to local (e.g., substrate and cover) and lakewide (e.g., dwellings/km and fishing effort) factors. Surprisingly, local habitat characteristics were not important determinants of the probability that a nest would produce swim-up fry (P > 0.05). At the whole-lake scale, however, nest success was negatively related to dwelling density; the probability of producing swim-up fry declined from 0.77 in the lake with the lowest dwelling density to 0.45 in the lake with the highest dwelling density (P = 0.018). Lakewide estimates of angling effort could not explain the difference among lakes, indicating the likely importance of quantifying angling at finer spatial scales. Knowledge of the magnitude of anthropogenic effects and the spatial scale at which they operate is integral for the management of black bass Micropterus spp.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33845662297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33845662297&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1577/T05-198.1
DO - 10.1577/T05-198.1
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33845662297
SN - 0002-8487
VL - 135
SP - 843
EP - 852
JO - Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
JF - Transactions of the American Fisheries Society
IS - 4
ER -