Diel movements of juvenile smalltooth sawfish: implications for defining the size of a nursery hotspot

Huston, Cecily A.; Stevens, Philip W.; Blaxton, Rebecca M.; Tolley, S. Gregory; Scharer, Rachel M.; Tornwall, Brett; Poulakis, Gregg R.

doi:10.3354/esr00851

Cited by 16 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…A . Portion of highuse site (nursery hotspot) where sawfish were captured, tagged, and released in the Peace River is shown in the inset; dashed box: the revised hotspot boundary based on Huston et al (2017) detailed examination of receiver performance (e.g. code detection efficiency, code rejection coefficients, and noise quotients) in the study area can be found in Simpfendorfer et al (2008a).…”

Section: Acoustic Transmitters and Acoustic Receiver Arraysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). In both rivers, these nursery hotspots were consistently used by sawfish between 2005 and 2014 , 2013, 2016, Huston et al 2017. ND = no data (i.e.…”

Section: Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…the slope of sawfish position vs. freshwater inflow re gression was shallow). Relocations occurred over the short (~10 river kilometers), wide, relatively high-salinity portion of the Peace River mouth, where there is only one nursery hotspot , Huston et al 2017. Even modest relocations from this hotspot (~5 river kilometers) result in sawfish leaving the river mouth or moving into the narrow, upriver section of the river.…”

Section: Aperiodic Cold Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hotspots of animal relative abundance identify the core areas of habitat mosaics (Nagelkerken et al 2015), and for juvenile smalltooth sawfish, the presence of nursery hotspots has become increasingly well documented in multiple nurseries throughout their range (Simpfendorfer et al 2010, 2013, 2016, Hollensead et al 2016, Huston et al 2017. These nursery hotspots are emerging as areas of special conservation concern, especially because of recently documented parturition site-fidelity (philopatry) to individual nur series (Feldheim et al 2017).…”

Section: River Management Within Critical Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These nursery hotspots are emerging as areas of special conservation concern, especially because of recently documented parturition site-fidelity (philopatry) to individual nur series (Feldheim et al 2017). While current re gu lations protect these areas as part of broadly designated juvenile critical habitat, research should continue to document this phenome-non throughout the current range and refine the boundaries of known nursery hotspots (Poulakis et al 2016, Huston et al 2017) to properly inform managers about specific areas that are critical for promoting long-term recovery and to designate extra protection to them if necessary (e.g. timing of dredging and construction projects).…”

Section: River Management Within Critical Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

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All nurseries are not created equal: large-scale habitat use patterns in two smalltooth sawfish nurseries

Scharer¹,

Stevens²,

Shea³

et al. 2017

Endang. Species. Res.

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Smalltooth sawfish Pristis pectinata use southwest Florida nurseries during at least their first 2 to 3 yr, and understanding region-specific habitat use patterns is important for effective management. Research occurred in 2 nurseries within the Charlotte Harbor estuarine system: the Caloosahatchee River, a highly human-altered nursery, and a more natural nursery, the Peace River. Between 2010 and 2013, a total of 148 juveniles ranging from 70.8 to 218.7 cm stretch total length were caught in gill nets, and 133 were acoustically tagged. The probability of encountering a sawfish during sampling was most influenced by season in both nurseries (highest during spring and summer), followed by dissolved oxygen in the Caloosahatchee River, and salinity and temperature in the Peace River. Temperature had lasting, atypical effects on movements when severe cold events occurred during the study. Outside of these disturbances, sawfish used all habitats available to them in both nurseries, but tended to reside in perennial high-use areas called nursery hotspots. Acoustic monitoring showed that juveniles gradually moved between 4 hotspots along a 20 river kilometer stretch of the Caloosahatchee River with seasonal changes in freshwater inflows or sometimes suddenly in response to large flow events. In contrast, sawfish in the Peace River remained associated with one nursery hotspot year-round. Reasons for these inter-nursery variations are attributed to differences in geomorphology and freshwater inflow regimes. This study illustrates that a full understanding of the life history of a species and the development of a conceptual model requires investigation of the species on a broad spatial scale. This consideration is important to avoid overgeneralization of habitat use patterns between nurseries.

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Section: Acoustic Transmitters and Acoustic Receiver Arraysmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2). In both rivers, these nursery hotspots were consistently used by sawfish between 2005 and 2014 , 2013, 2016, Huston et al 2017. ND = no data (i.e.…”

Section: Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Aperiodic Cold Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: River Management Within Critical Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: River Management Within Critical Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

All nurseries are not created equal: large-scale habitat use patterns in two smalltooth sawfish nurseries

Scharer¹,

Stevens²,

Shea³

et al. 2017

Endang. Species. Res.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Seasonal use of a macrotidal estuary by the endangered dwarf sawfish, Pristis clavata

Morgan

Lear

Dobinson

et al. 2021

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Sawfishes (Family: Pristidae) are one of the most imperilled fish families worldwide. There is an increasingly urgent need to better understand the biology, ecology, and population status of the five sawfish species to develop more effective conservation measures. The dwarf sawfish, Pristis clavata, is one of the least researched members of the pristids, with literature limited to analysing disparate datasets or collations of rare encounters in northern Australia.2. This study examined the spatial ecology of dwarf sawfish using targeted surveys and acoustic telemetry to determine its habitat use in a macrotidal estuary in northern Australia. Seventeen dwarf sawfish were tagged with acoustic transmitters and monitored in the Fitzroy River estuary and adjacent King Sound (Kimberley, Western Australia) between August 2015 and November 2017.3. Dwarf sawfish observed within the Fitzroy River estuary and King Sound were juveniles, ranging between 740 and 2,540 mm in total length. Catch per unit effort of dwarf sawfish in the late dry season was relatively high in the estuary, with the catch rate in 2015 being one of the highest reported for any sawfish species.4. Acoustic detections revealed a distinct seasonal pattern in the use of different parts of the estuary and King Sound, which was found to be driven by salinity.Dwarf sawfish predominately occupied a single large pool near the terminus of the tidal limit in the late dry season (August-November), before transitioning to regions in closer proximity to the river mouth or in King Sound in the wet and early dry seasons (December-July).5. Given the high abundance and residency of dwarf sawfish in the Fitzroy River estuary, this area is an important nursery for the species during the late dry season and should be formally recognized as a habitat protection area for the species.

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Sawfish, read in tooth and saw: Rostral teeth as endogenous chemical records of movement and life‐history in a critically endangered species

Hegg

Graves

Fisher

2021

Aquatic Conservation

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The ecology of endangered and rare species can be difficult to study owing to their low abundances and legal limits on scientist’s ability to catch, sample, and track them. This is particularly true of sawfish (family Pristidae), whose numbers have declined precipitously, placing all five species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species worldwide. Best known for their distinctive, toothed rostrum, the ecology, movement and life‐history of sawfish are poorly understood. Sawfish rostral teeth are modified placoid scales, which grow continuously throughout the life of the fish. This continuous growth, combined with their stable calcified makeup, makes sawfish rostral teeth a potential source of temporal records of chemical and isotopic changes through the life of the fish. Rostral teeth are often preserved in museums and as curios, potentially providing a source of life‐history data to inform conservation actions without the need for field study, or as an important compliment to it. This is the first study to recover temporally explicit chemical data from sawfish rostral teeth. Using archived samples of largetooth sawfish (Pristis pristis) we show that multiple chemical tracers can be recovered from sawfish rostral teeth, and that these tracers can be used to understand movement across salinity gradients. We further show that sawfish rostral teeth contain repeated structures and indistinct banding which could potentially be used for ageing or growth analysis of fish.

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Diel movements of juvenile smalltooth sawfish: implications for defining the size of a nursery hotspot

Cited by 16 publications

References 29 publications

All nurseries are not created equal: large-scale habitat use patterns in two smalltooth sawfish nurseries

All nurseries are not created equal: large-scale habitat use patterns in two smalltooth sawfish nurseries

Seasonal use of a macrotidal estuary by the endangered dwarf sawfish, Pristis clavata

Sawfish, read in tooth and saw: Rostral teeth as endogenous chemical records of movement and life‐history in a critically endangered species

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