Gizzard Shad Put a Freeze on Winter Mortality of Age-0 Yellow Perch but Not White Perch

Abstract

Four decades of observations on the limnology and fishes of Oneida Lake, New York, USA, provided an opportunity to investigate causes of mortality during winter, a period of resource scarcity for most juvenile fishes, in age-0 yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and age-0 white perch (Morone americana). This time series contains several environmental (e.g., winter severity) and biological (e.g., predator abundance) signals that can be used to disentangle multiple effects on overwinter mortality of these fishes. A multiple regression analysis indicated that age-0 yellow perch winter mortality was inversely related to fish length in autumn and to the abundance of alternative prey (gizzard shad [Dorosoma cepedianum] and white perch). However, no length-selective predation of yellow perch by one of the main predators, adult walleye (Sander vitreus), was detected. In contrast, white perch mortality was directly associated with total predator biomass and abundance of white perch in autumn, and inversely related to yellow perch abundance as a potential buffer species, but not to the abundance of gizzard shad. Winter severity was not a significant predictor of mortality for either perch species. Predicted winter starvation mortality, from a model described in the literature, was much lower than observed mortality for yellow perch. Similar models for white perch were correlated with observed mortality. These results collectively suggest that predation is the main mechanism shaping winter mortality of yellow perch, while both predation and starvation may be important for white perch. This analysis also revealed that gizzard shad buffer winter mortality of yellow perch. Although winter duration determines the northern limit of fish distributions, in mid-latitude Oneida Lake and for these species, predator-prey interactions seem to exert a greater influence on winter mortality than starvation.

Overwinter Mortality of Sympatric Juvenile Bluegill and Yellow Perch in Mid-Temperate Sandhill lakes, Nebraska, U.S.A

“…The latter results differ from other studies that found substantial overwinter mortality (44-99%) for juvenile yellow perch of similar sizes entering their first winter [15,24,51].…”

“…However, predator-induced size-selective mortality in larger individuals is a less-observed phenomenon [56,57]. Sizeselective overwinter mortality, in contrast, is commonly found among yellow perch populations [15,21,24], but is not always pervasive [58] and typically does not reduce the survival of larger conspecifics as we found in the current study, which suggests a different mechanism (i.e., predation).…”

“…Specifically, small yellow perch may have higher metabolic demands relative to larger conspecifics, as is found in other species (e.g., pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus (Lacé-pède) [22]), thus reducing their lipid reserves at a faster rate when resources are limited during winter months [22,23]. Finally, Higher over winter mortality for age-0 yellow perch has also been related to heightened predation [24]. It is plausible that complex interactions with other species affect the degree of overwinter mortality and whether it is sizeselective.…”

Modeling climate change impacts on the thermal dynamics of polymictic Oneida Lake, New York, United States

“…Climate change will substantially increase year-class strength of warmwater species, such as smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), (Casselman, 2002) and decrease occurrences of winterkills due to cold winters (Fitzgerald et al, 2006). A study of Oneida Lake gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), a warmwater fish species with a northern range already extended beyond its historical boundary, concluded warmer lake temperatures will lead to age-0 gizzard shad entering winter at larger sizes and provide greater temperature refuges during the winter leading to increased gizzard shad overwinter survival and a greater role of gizzard shad in the Oneida Lake food web (Fetzer et al, 2011).…”

First occurrence of the mysid Hemimysis anomala in an inland lake in North America, Oneida Lake, NY

“…Borcherding et al (2006) also reported that Hemimysis may survive temperatures close to 0°C over winter, and Hemimysis have also been sampled from the Great Lakes at temperatures as low as 2°C . Oneida Lake reaches very low temperatures in the winter (almost always b1°C, sometimes for N90 days; Fitzgerald et al, 2006) and summer temperatures close to 28°C have been observed . If Hemimysis can survive at the temperature extremes found in Oneida Lake, there are few lakes in the Northeast where they would be thermally limited.…”