Exploring the Generality of Recruitment Hypotheses for Largemouth Bass along a Latitudinal Gradient of Florida Lakes

نویسندگان

  • MARK W. ROGERS
  • MICHEAL S. ALLEN
چکیده

—Latitudinal influences on growing season length and winter severity cause variation in prerecruitment life history across species distributions. We evaluated two recruitment hypotheses for a broadly distributed species, largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, at the southern extent of their natural range. We tested (1) whether early hatching provided a growth and survival advantage relative to later hatching through their first summer and (2) whether overwinter size-selective mortality strongly influenced recruitment to age 1 across Florida’s latitudinal gradient. We sampled the 2003 and 2004 year-classes at six Florida lakes that spanned latitudes from 2780N to 3085N. Our results did not fully conform to our hypotheses or the results frequently reported from more northerly latitudes because largemouth bass that hatched early did not exhibit a growth and survival advantage at all lakes and we did not detect strong sizeselective overwinter mortality. Early hatching at south Florida lakes resulted in slow growth for three of four lake and year combinations and early-hatched fish never exhibited a survival advantage relative to laterhatched fish, which was probably due to cool water temperatures soon after hatching. Environmental variability influenced the interactions between hatching period, growth, and survival for Florida’s largemouth bass populations, which has implications for understanding fish recruitment across broad spatial scales. Aquatic ecologists and fisheries managers struggle to understand fish recruitment because it is highly variable and both density-dependent and densityindependent factors influence prerecruitment survival (Post et al. 1998). Environmental (e.g., temperature) and biological (e.g., energetics and predator–prey relationships) factors interact to influence recruitment processes (e.g., hatching dates, growth, and mortality), but the relative strengths of those recruitment processes can vary greatly with latitude (Conover 1992; Garvey et al. 2002b). Establishing latitudinal patterns in hatching, growth, and survival of juvenile fish is a goal of ecologists (Garvey et al. 2002b) and facilitates understanding of species-specific variation in life history traits across large spatial gradients (Conover

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

منابع مشابه

Physiological disturbances and overwinter mortality of largemouth bass from different latitudes.

Thermal conditions associated with winter can influence the distribution of a species. Because winter severity varies along latitudes, populations of temperate fish located along a latitudinal gradient may display variation in both sublethal and lethal responses to cold stressors. Sublethal physiological disturbances were quantified in age 1 largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) from populati...

متن کامل

Effects of Stocking Adult Largemouth Bass to Enhance Fisheries Recovery in Pascagoula River Floodplain Lakes Impacted by Hurricane Katrina

Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, hypoxia-induced fish kills occurred throughout the Pascagoula River Basin in southeast Mississippi. We evaluated the effect of stocking adult Florida largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides floridanus; 200–356 mm total length) into Pascagoula River floodplain lakes to enhance fisheries recovery. We stocked 37 fish/ha into five randomly-chosen lakes in Decembe...

متن کامل

Mercury stable isotopes in sediments and largemouth bass from Florida lakes, USA.

Humans and wildlife can be exposed to mercury (Hg) through the consumption of fish with elevated concentrations of methylmercury (MeHg). Studies have shown that increased atmospheric deposition of Hg often leads to increased MeHg concentrations in aquatic organisms. However, depending on the ecosystem characteristics, reductions in Hg emissions may not always lead to immediate decreases in fish...

متن کامل

The invasion window for warmwater fish in clearwater lakes: the role of ultraviolet radiation and temperature

Aim In clear, cold-water lakes, ultraviolet radiation (UV) and temperature are two important stressors that may prevent the establishment of aquatic invasive species by inhibiting the survival of sensitive early life history stages. In this study, we develop a UV–temperature response model to predict the establishment potential of a warmwater fish, largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), in a ...

متن کامل

Admixture Analysis of Florida Largemouth Bass and Northern Largemouth Bass using Microsatellite Loci

—Microsatellite DNA variation was examined at 11 loci in five populations of Florida largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides floridanus (N 1⁄4 175) and eight populations of northern largemouth bass M. s. salmoides (N 1⁄4 249). Distinct allele frequencies with 33 private alleles between subspecies (threshold frequency, 0.05) and 19 private alleles among three geographic regions distinguished betwe...

متن کامل

ذخیره در منابع من


  با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید

برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید

ثبت نام

اگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید

عنوان ژورنال:

دوره   شماره 

صفحات  -

تاریخ انتشار 2009