Stock structure in western Lake Erie’s yellow perch fishery: quantifying contributions from the Lake St. Clair – Detroit River corridor
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Date
2012-03
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Ability to quantify connectivity among local spawning populations and their relative contribution of recruits to the fishable population is critical to fisheries management in marine and freshwater ecosystems. We explored such stock structure in yellow perch (Perca flavescens) residing in the Lake St. Clair – Detroit River corridor (SC-DRc) and western Lake Erie, using larval otolith microchemistry (strontium, barium) and genetics (9 microsatellites loci) as natural tags to potentially discriminate among these stocks and then identify their contributions of juvenile recruits during 2006-2007. Our results show that the SC-DRc and Lake Erie are “connected” via larval dispersal with some SC-DRc larvae even recruiting to the juvenile stage in western Lake Erie. Interestingly, however, significant, stable genetic structure existed between “stocks” (FST = 0.014 and 0.018 in 2006 and 2007, respectively). This maintenance of genetic diversity between the SC-DRc and Lake Erie appears due to 1) low export of SC-DRc larvae relative to in-lake larval production and 2) slow growth rates (first 10 d of life, as recorded in otoliths) in SC-DRc larvae, which likely enhances growth-dependent mortality via predation. We discuss these mechanisms more fully and the implications of these findings to Great Lakes fisheries management.
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Keywords
population genetics, yellow perch, otolith microchemistry, stock structure