Functional Assessment of Great Lakes Coastal Wetlands: Insights from Seasonal Fish Diets

Session: Restoration and Management of Great Lakes Fishes (4)

Adrian Gonzalez Ortiz, United States Geological Survey Great Lakes Science Center, [email protected]
Jeffrey Schaeffer, USGS Great Lakes Science Center, [email protected]
Sara Diller, US Geological Survey, [email protected]
Afton Welninski, USGS, [email protected]

Abstract

Great Lakes coastal wetlands provide a broad range of ecological services, especially fish and wildlife production. Wetlands provide habitats for spawning, nursey, feeding, and/or protection from predators. Due to anthropogenic stressors, wetland quality differs widely across the Great Lakes. Here, we investigate fish communities and diets from wetlands of differing qualities to determine how prey resources vary among different quality wetlands. We used basin-wide data collected from Fall 2016, 2017, 2018 and Spring 2017 and 2018 to compare prey consumption by fish among wetlands and seasons. We hypothesized that higher quality wetlands would provide higher quality prey for juvenile fish thus provide better growth and survival. Preliminary insights from the data suggest that wetland quality does not affect fish diets directly. However, we observed seasonal differences. Additionally, there were many cases where zooplankton predominated in diet, which raises the question of whether they originated in-situ or were advected from the nearshore. This study and concurrent studies of prey availability will aid in understanding how anthropogenic stressors influence Great Lakes coastal wetlands, fish production, and ecosystem services.