Application of Species Distribution Models to Identify Estuarine Hot Spots for Juvenile Nekton

Hijuelos, Ann; Sable, Shaye E.; O’Connell, Ann M.; Geaghan, James P.; Lindquist, David C.; White, Eric

doi:10.1007/s12237-016-0199-5

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Despite the clear ecological and commercial importance of shallow estuarine habitats to nekton species, few studies have summarized patterns of nekton utilization across habitat types, landscapes, and seasons at regional or global scales (e.g., Minello 1999;Minello et al 2003;Hijuelos et al 2017). In this study, we developed a meta-analytical approach to combine separate nekton density datasets (using different gear types) to evaluate patterns in nekton use across studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analysis of Nekton Utilization of Coastal Habitats in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Hollweg

Christman

Cebrián

et al. 2019

Estuaries and Coasts

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Estuaries in the northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM) provide habitat for many ecologically, commercially, and recreationally important fish and crustacean species (i.e., nekton), but patterns of nekton abundance and community assemblages across habitat types, salinity zones, and seasons have not been described region-wide. Recognizing the wealth of information collected from previous and ongoing field sampling efforts, we developed a meta-analytical approach to aggregate nekton density data from separate studies (using different gear types) that can be used to answer key research questions. We then applied this meta-analytical approach to separate nekton datasets from studies conducted in the Gulf of Mexico to summarize patterns in nekton density across and within several estuarine habitat types, including marsh, oyster reefs, submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), and open-water non-vegetated bottom (NVB). The results of the meta-analysis highlighted several important patterns of nekton use associated with these habitat types. Nekton densities were higher in structured estuarine habitats (i.e., marsh, oyster reefs, SAV) than in open-water NVB habitat. Marsh and SAV community assemblages were relatively similar to each other, but different from those associated with open-water NVB and oyster habitats. Densities of commercially and recreationally important crustacean and fish species were highest in saline marshes, thus demonstrating the importance of this habitat in the northern GOM. The results of our meta-analysis are generally consistent with previous site-specific studies in the region (many of which were included in the meta-analysis) and provide further evidence for these patterns at a regional scale. This meta-analytical approach is easy to implement for diverse research and management purposes, and provides the opportunity to advance understanding of the value and role of coastal habitats to nekton communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meta-analysis of Nekton Utilization of Coastal Habitats in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Hollweg

Christman

Cebrián

et al. 2019

Estuaries and Coasts

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“…This addition of the upwinding technique greatly increased the stability of salinity predictions. Further discussion and analysis of the ICM methodology, calibration, validation, model performance and analysis are provided in the Supplementary Materials as well as several peer reviewed articles [24][25][26][30][31][32][33][34] and technical reports [35][36][37][38][39][40][41].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The rate of the eustatic sea-level rise accelerates over time in the simulation and is assumed to be the lead cause of that significant increase in salinities in the last decade. These changes have been shown to have dramatic effects on vegetation [32] and, in combination with the changes in temperature, can dramatically influence the distribution of aquatic species [34].…”

Section: Lessons For Future Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigating the Effects of Sea-Level Rise on Estuaries of the Mississippi Delta Plain Using River Diversions

White

Meselhe

Reed

et al. 2019

Water

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Using the Mississippi River as a tool for restoration has been a key element of restoration planning in Louisiana for decades. The results of allowing river water and sediment back into the coastal system are manifested in a number of places in present day Louisiana, with additional plans for large scale sediment and water diversions from the Mississippi River. Many previous numerical modeling studies have focused on sediment delivery to Louisiana estuaries. This study examines the effects of river diversions on salinity gradients in receiving estuarine basins. The Integrated Compartment Model, a planning-level model that simulates multi-decadal change in estuarine hydrodynamics and wetland systems under assumed sea-level rise scenarios, was used to assess the estuarine salinity gradient under potential management regimes. The simulations for current conditions are compared to a future 50-year simulation with additional diversions, as well as cases with a variety of diversion options. This modeling analysis shows that without additional action, 50-years of sea-level rise could result in substantial increases in salinity throughout the Mississippi Delta Plain estuaries. This can be largely offset with additional large river diversions which can maintain variable salinity gradients throughout the estuary basins.

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“…While individual fish and wetland vegetation species currently included in restoration planning models [8][9][10] respond to a variety of salinity dynamics, a single salinity concentration threshold of 8 ng/kg (1 ng of dissolved salinity per 1 kg of water is equivalent to one part per thousand, or ppt, a traditional measurement of salinity concentration) was used here due to it corresponding reasonably well with the salinity preferences of bottlenose dolphins [3], a species not included in the aforementioned restoration models. This study will focus on developing a means to compare both observed and modeled salinity dynamics (relative to the 8 ng/kg threshold) to observed locations of bottlenose dolphins in Barataria Basin.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The method outlined will provide a hybrid approach between direct modeling of fishery response to salinity stressors driven by restoration and diversion projects [8,9,16,17], general habitat (e.g., not fishery-specific) modeling [10,18,19] and observational studies focused on either habitat or species-level response to controlled field experiments [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Salinity and Marine Mammal Dynamics in Barataria Basin: Historic Patterns and Modeled Diversion Scenarios

White

Messina

Moss

et al. 2018

Water

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Understanding spatiotemporal patterns of salinity in Barataria Basin in coastal Louisiana is important to better understand and manage operations of existing and proposed freshwater and sediment diversions from the Mississippi River into the estuary. In this study, a comprehensive salinity dataset was compiled which covered the entire basin and included data from 1990 through 2015. The data were aggregated into daily mean salinity timeseries across Barataria Basin at a variety of spatial scales and used to analyze historic patterns. Simulations were conducted with two hydrodynamic models, the Integrated Compartment Model (ICM) and Delft3D. The Delft3D model output was overlaid with observed geo-tagged locations of bottlenose dolphins that were sampled from the southwest quadrant of the basin. The ICM simulations were used to assess the impact of existing freshwater and proposed sediment diversion projects which reintroduce riverine water into the estuary. The salinity in the uppermost portions of the basin is sensitive primarily to the existing freshwater diversion, whereas additional flows from a proposed sediment diversion result in additional freshening. The lowermost region of the basin is most sensitive to the proposed sediment diversion; however, the magnitude varies by diverted flow volumes and assumed sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico.

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Application of Species Distribution Models to Identify Estuarine Hot Spots for Juvenile Nekton

Cited by 11 publications

References 65 publications

Meta-analysis of Nekton Utilization of Coastal Habitats in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Meta-analysis of Nekton Utilization of Coastal Habitats in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

Mitigating the Effects of Sea-Level Rise on Estuaries of the Mississippi Delta Plain Using River Diversions

Salinity and Marine Mammal Dynamics in Barataria Basin: Historic Patterns and Modeled Diversion Scenarios

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