Abundance Patterns and Community Attributes of Fishes Relative to Environmental Gradients

Abstract

Marshall, T. E., and P. A. Ryan. 1987. Abundance patterns and community attributes of fishes relative t o environmental gradients. Can. I. Fish. Aquat. Sci. M(Suppl. 2): 198-215.Seventy-five lakes s f the Canadian boreal forest were examined for patterns of fish species abundance and community structure in relation to gradients of four environmental variables: (1) Bake area, (2) mean depth,(3) Secchi disk transparency, and (4) rnorpkoedaphic index (MEI). Mean depth appeared to exert the greatest control o n the relative abundance of the species considered. The remaining variables influenced abundance i n unique ways, although, as witk mean depth, this influence was mainly a consequence of changes in thermal and nutrient regimes. An examination s f lower trophic components indicated that these regimes appear to structure food webs, with distinctly different patterns in food webs occurring in dimictic and polymictic Bakes. Major shifts in aquatic biota occur in the transition region between Bake types. Lakes witk these characteristics are at a Bower successional state due t o environmental unpredictability, as demonstrated by an increasing importance of rover K-strategists.O n a etudie 75 lacs de la for& boreale canadienne pour la recherche de tendances de I'abondance des especes de poisscln et de la structure des comrnunautes par rapport aux gradients de quatre variables envirsnnernentales : 1) superficie d u lac, 2) profondeur msyenne, 3) transparenceau disque de Seccki et4) indice rnorpho6daphique. La prsfondeur moyenne sernble &re le parametre qui exer~ait la plus grande influence sur B'abondance relative des especes etudi6es. Les autresvariables influaient sur I'abondance de faqon particuliere mais, comrme dans le cas de la profondeur moyenne, cette influence resultait surtout de modifications d u regime thermiqkse et de celui des rnatieres nutritives. Un examen des csrnposantes trophiques inferieures a montre queces regimes structuraient Bes reseauxalimentaires qui prgsentaient des allures tres differentes dans les lacs dimictiques et polymictiques. Les princigales modifications du biote aquatique, entre lacs de types differents, etaient notees dans la none de transition. Les lacs presentant ses caracteristiques sont un niveaee evolutif inferieur A cause de facteuas environnementaux imprevisibles, cornme le demontre la predominance de plus en plus importante des strategies r sur les strategies K.

Assessing lake typologies and indicator fish species for Italian natural lakes using past fish richness and assemblages

“…We found that high altitude or deep lakes sustain populations of sensitive/intolerant fish species such as salmonids (trout, char), bullhead and coregonids, while shallow and relatively small lakes were characterized mainly by phytophilic and benthivoroustolerant species. This is in line with numerous studies in the northern hemisphere showing that enhanced primary productivity reinforced by specific morphometric characteristics of shallow lakes leads to a shift in fish communities from Salmoniformes (mainly coregonids) to phytophilic or tolerant species (Marshall & Ryan, 1987;Persson et al, 1991;Holmgren & Appelberg, 2000;Mehner et al, 2005;Garcia et al, 2006). Furthermore, at species level, Heino et al (2010) found that pike and perch were among the most common species in meso-eutrophic boreal lakes, while brown trout was common in deep oligotrophic lakes in the same region.…”

Coldwater fish oxythermal habitat in Minnesota lakes: influence of total phosphorus, July air temperature, and relative depth

“…The coldwater stenothermal nature of lake trout is well documented, and several authors have synthesized studies of lake trout thermal ecology (Christie and Regier 1988;MacLean et al 1990;Evans 2007). The requirements for cold, oxygenated water by the four coldwater taxa present in Minnesota followed the same general order observed by Marshall and Ryan (1987) in Ontario lakes.…”

Predicting the Occurrence and Success of Walleye Populations from Physical and Biological Features of Northern Wisconsin Lakes

“…Surface area and some measure of depth were previously found to be useful variables for predicting species associations Schneider 1981;Tonn et al 1983;Marshall and Ryan 1987). A large surface area may correspond to more habitat area or volume for fish (Christie and Regier 1988), and depth and area describe lake morphometry, which affects most physical, chemical, and biological processes within lakes (Wetzel 1975).…”