Document Type
Article
Abstract
Within Voyageurs National Park, spiny water flea Bythotrephes longimanus has reduced Lake Kabetogama and Rainy Lake native zooplankton biomass during summer peak by 40-60%. Subsequently, planktivorous age-0 Yellow Perch Perca flavescens growth has decreased. A possible trophic cascade may influence predatory fish growth rates like that of age-0 Walleye Sander vitreus. Using seine net and electrofishing data, age-0 Walleye growth rates were modeled as a linear function of growing degree days (GDD) and the slope was compared between pre- and post-spiny water flea establishment. Nearby Lake Vermilion, assumed to have been unaffected by spiny water flea until 2015 and found to have no changes in Yellow Perch growth, was used as a reference for natural variation in age-0 Walleye growth in the region. At 1050 GDD, the two infected lakes showed either no change (Lake Kabetogama) or a decline in mean growth rate (Rainy Lake) of 5% related to GDD, whereas the uninfected lake (Lake Vermilion) showed an increase in mean growth rate of 9% during the same time period. The effects spiny water fleas have on age-0 Walleye growth varied from lake to lake and its broader implications are not completely clear. A lakes limnological characteristics and management plans for Walleye may contribute to changes in growth rates of age-0 Walleye just as much as the presence of spiny water flea. Further monitoring and analysis of now infested Lake Vermilion (this studies refence lake) may help determine the effects spiny water fleas have on age-0 Walleye growth.
Publication Date
2018
Recommended Citation
Amundson, Joseph, "Age-0 Walleye Growth Rates Following Spiny Water Flea Bythotrephes longimanus Invasion" (2018). Journal of Earth and Life Science. 31.
https://pines.bemidjistate.edu/j-earth-life-sci/31
Included in
Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, Biology Commons, Environmental Health and Protection Commons, Environmental Monitoring Commons, Laboratory and Basic Science Research Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Population Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, Water Resource Management Commons
Comments
Faculty sponsor: Dr. Andrew Hafs, Department of Biology, Aquatic Biology Program