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Effects of Productivity Gradients on Fish Community Structure in Lake Erie

Yanos, Casey Lee
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1483546630641725

Abstract Details

2017, Master of Science, University of Toledo, Biology (Ecology).
Lake Erie has strong productivity gradients which introduce variation into the relationship between primary productivity and the fish community. Most of Lake Erie is a bottom-up regulated system and efforts to manage upper trophic level resources such as fish, and more specifically top predators such as walleye (Sander vitreus) and yellow perch (Perca flavescens) must incorporate knowledge of how productivity controls these resources. Previous work has quantified the relationships among resources occupying different trophic levels and connectivity between primary productivity and fish. However, these relationships were based on little to no variation in primary productivity. Therefore, to understand which gradients and drivers of those gradients influenced the fish community, I created classification and regression trees (CARTs) and used the results to inform a continuous Bayesian networks model (cBN) to quantify the relationship between productivity and fish resources while accounting for the variation caused by the gradients. My CARTs indicated that the fish community as a whole as well as walleye and yellow perch are influenced by nutrients, and therefore productivity, and that the distribution of the fish community as a whole and walleye follow Lake Erie’s west to east productivity gradient. The fish community additionally follows an in to offshore productivity gradient and walleye also follow a seasonal gradient. Species biomass and composition typically respond to different resources but in many cases sites with high walleye biomass also have high walleye composition, so the different resources are still indicative of the same gradients. My cBN model and simulations indicate that a decrease in nutrients results in decreases of fish including walleye and yellow perch and additional simulations indicate that decreases to forage fish also result in decreases of fish including walleye and yellow perch.
Christine Mayer (Committee Co-Chair)
Song Qian (Committee Co-Chair)
Mark Rogers (Committee Member)
Douglas Kane (Committee Member)
Environmental Science

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Yanos, C. L. (2017). Effects of Productivity Gradients on Fish Community Structure in Lake Erie [Master's thesis, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1483546630641725

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Yanos, Casey. Effects of Productivity Gradients on Fish Community Structure in Lake Erie. 2017. University of Toledo, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1483546630641725.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Yanos, Casey. "Effects of Productivity Gradients on Fish Community Structure in Lake Erie." Master's thesis, University of Toledo, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1483546630641725

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1483546630641725
271
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This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.