Influence of Water Quality and Season on Habitat Use by Striped Bass in a Large Southwestern Reservoir

Abstract

A large, multiyear (1981-1986) gillnetting data set was used to assess patterns of seasonal habitat use by striped bass Morone saxatilis in Lake Texoma, Oklahoma-Texas. Large (>2.27 kg), medium (1.36-2.27 kg), and small (< 1.36 kg but not including age-0 individuals) fish exhibited different patterns of seasonal abundance in a study area about 40 km uplake from the dam. Large fish were never taken in the study area in June, July, August, or September, or when surface water temperatures exceeded 22°C. Abundance of medium-sized fish was significantly lower during June-September and when temperatures were above 22°C than in other months and at cooler temperatures. Small fish remained abundant in the uplake area all year but were almost never collected at dissolved oxygen concentrations less than 6.0 mg/L in summer. Substantial numbers of small fish were collected at temperatures as high as 29°C, but their catch per unit effort dropped from a mean of 11.8/net at 28°C to l.9/net at 30°C. Our results supported the thermal niche hypothesis for striped bass, and the response of small striped bass to high temperatures was similar to that reported previously.

Diel and seasonal abundance of fishes in the Platte River, Nebraska, USA

“…Relations between seasonal patterns of abundance and threshold temperature have been shown by Matthews et al 10 The highest temperature in our study site reached 32.25∞C in the summer. 14,15 From 1987 to 1991, red shiner, river shiner, sand shiner, plains minnow and western silvery minnow contributed approximately 85% to the total collections.…”

“…Long-term studies provide a database for broader issues, such as global temperature changes. [8][9][10] Changes in seasonal abundance may be related to environmental fluctuations that affect suitable habitats for fish spawning. [3][4][5] These diel differences can usually be attributed to behaviors of foraging patterns or a trade-off between food utilization and predator avoidance.…”

Temporal and spatial variability of an invasive toxigenic protist in a North American subtropical reservoir

“…From 1965 to 1974, Lake Texoma was stocked with striped bass (Morone saxatilis) which have since established a selfsustaining reproductive population and supports a recreational striped bass fishery that generates tens of millions of dollars annually (Matthews et al, 1989;Schorr et al, 1995). A unique combination of high nutrient loading and turbidity, fisheries management, and sub-tropical seasonality has created a system containing a diverse array of daphniid zooplankton species cooccurring and/or alternating with a small cladoceran-copepodrotifer assemblage more typical of lakes with high fish planktivory (Franks et al, 2001;Threlkeld, 1986;Work and Gophen, 1995).…”

Long-Term Changes in a Reservoir Fish Assemblage: Stability in an Unpredictable Environment

“…Native fishes, that evolved in a large river ecosystem and normally experienced large fluctuations in temperature and reductions in flow, appear to be more resistant to harsh abiotic events. On the other hand, some introduced species, in particular large striped bass, are adversely affected by extreme events like high temperature and hypoxia during the summer (Coutant 1985, Matthews 1985, Matthews et al 1989. Because striped bass are intolerant of high water temperatures, thermal stratification shrinks their suitable habitat to a small area just above the thermocline (Coutant 1985).…”