Seasonal and interannual effects of hypoxia on fish habitat quality in central Lake Erie

Abstract

SUMMARY1. Hypoxia occurs seasonally in many stratified coastal marine and freshwater ecosystems when bottom dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations are depleted below 2-3 mg O 2 L )1 .2. We evaluated the effects of hypoxia on fish habitat quality in the central basin of Lake Erie from 1987 to 2005, using bioenergetic growth rate potential (GRP) as a proxy for habitat quality. We compared the effect of hypoxia on habitat quality of (i) rainbow smelt, Osmerus mordax mordax Mitchill (young-of-year, YOY, and adult), a cold-water planktivore, (ii) emerald shiner, Notropis atherinoides Rafinesque (adult), a warm-water planktivore, (iii) yellow perch, Perca flavescens Mitchill (YOY and adult), a cool-water benthopelagic omnivore and (iv) round goby Neogobius melanostomus Pallas (adult) a eurythermal benthivore. Annual thermal and DO profiles were generated from 1D thermal and DO hydrodynamics models developed for Lake Erie's central basin.3. Hypoxia occurred annually, typically from mid-July to mid-October, which spatially and temporally overlaps with otherwise high benthic habitat quality. Hypoxia reduced the habitat quality across fish species and life stages, but the magnitude of the reduction varied both among and within species because of the differences in tolerance to low DO levels and warm-water temperatures. 4. Across years, trends in habitat quality mirrored trends in phosphorus concentration and water column oxygen demand in central Lake Erie. The per cent reduction in habitat quality owing to hypoxia was greatest for adult rainbow smelt and round goby (mean: )35%), followed by adult emerald shiner (mean: )12%), YOY rainbow smelt (mean: )10%) and YOY and adult yellow perch (mean: )8.5%). 5. Our results highlight the importance of differential spatiotemporally interactive effects of DO and temperature on relative fish habitat quality and quantity. These effects have the potential to influence the performance of individual fish species as well as population dynamics, trophic interactions and fish community structure.

Long‐term changes in hypoxia and soluble reactive phosphorus in the hypolimnion of a large temperate lake: consequences of a climate regime shift

“…The lake is home to a commercial coldwater fishery, with lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) the most abundant fish species (Massol et al, 2007). The observed increase in water temperature and decrease in deep-water O 2 concentration combine to reduce the size and range of the coldwater fish habitat, a phenomenon referred to as the 'thermal-dissolved O 2 squeeze' (Coutant, 1985;Arend et al, 2010). Throughout Segments II and III in the Lake of Zurich, O 2 concentrations throughout the entire hypolimnion were below the hypoxic threshold for juvenile lake trout ([O 2 ] <7 mg l À1 ; Evans, 2007) at least once every year.…”

Dissolved oxygen stratification and response to thermal structure and long-term climate change in a large and deep subtropical reservoir (Lake Qiandaohu, China)

“…The concentration of dissolved oxygen (DO) plays a vital role in biogeochemical cycling and the evolution of ecosystem structure and function and is also a sensitive indicator of physical and biogeochemical changes in aquatic ecosystems (Arend et al, 2011;Hupfer and Lewandowski, 2008;Jones et al, 2008;Vaquer-Sunyer and Duarte, 2008). For example, DO concentration controls phosphorus release from lake sediments (Hupfer and Lewandowski, 2008), oxycline depth (the greatest decrease in DO concentration at 1.0 m intervals) greatly influences hypolimnetic methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations (Perron et al, 2014), and hypoxia (DO concentration less than 6.5 mg/L) (Nü rnberg, 2004) in benthic water alters fish physiological processes, spatial distribution, and predatoreprey interactions (Pollock et al, 2007).…”

Dynamic hypoxic zones in Lake Erie compress fish habitat, altering vulnerability to fishing gears

“…For this portion of the analysis, we used 3.0 mg·L −1 as the threshold for hypoxia. Although some studies have shown behavioral reactions at higher dissolved oxygen concentrations (Vaquer-Sunyer and Duarte 2008), this represented a median threshold for potentially unusable habitat for Lake Erie fishes based upon laboratory experiments on consumption (analyzed in Arend et al 2011). After visualizing the data and quantifying volumes, we determined that the hypoxic zones existed as a thin (ϳ2 m) layer contacting the bottom; therefore, we present only a two-dimensional view of bottom hypoxia herein (i.e., Fig.…”

“…In contrast, the more pervasive effects appear to be indirect. Seasonal hypoxia leads to widespread reduction in habitat quality or loss of habitat as measured by reduced growth rate potential in bioenergetics models of temperature, oxygen, and forage density (Arend et al 2011;Brandt et al 2011). Loss of suitable habitat for positive growth is thought to be responsible for the observed declines in Lake Erie yellow perch (Perca flavescens) body condition following long durations of hypoxia (Scavia et al 2014).…”

“…Loss of suitable habitat for positive growth is thought to be responsible for the observed declines in Lake Erie yellow perch (Perca flavescens) body condition following long durations of hypoxia (Scavia et al 2014). Indeed, the species most vulnerable to these changes in habitat quality are demersal or cool-and coldwater species, which prefer hypolimnetic environments in a warm summer stratified lake (Arend et al 2011). In general, the reduction of suitable habitat displaces fish into adjacent habitats of marginal quality with resultant shifts in diet and reduced productivity at higher trophic levels Roberts et al 2009;Vanderploeg et al 2009a).…”