Predicting Fish Growth Potential and Identifying Water Quality Constraints: A Spatially-Explicit Bioenergetics Approach

• Published in: Environmental management (New York) Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 691 - 709
• Main Authors: Budy, Phaedra, Baker, Matthew, Dahle, Samuel K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.10.2011; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: animal growth; Animal populations; Animals; Anthropogenic factors; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Bioenergetics; catfish; Clean Water Act-US; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecology; Ecosystem; energy metabolism; Energy Metabolism - physiology; Environment; Environmental Management; Environmental perception; Eutrophication; Fish; Fishes; Fishes - growth & development; Forestry Management; Fresh Water; Freshwater; Geographic Information Systems; growth & development; Habitats; High temperature; image analysis; Impairment; Integrated approach; Management; Marine; Models, Biological; Nature Conservation; Nutrient loading; Physical growth; Physiology; Pollution abatement; pollution load; prediction; Productivity; Remote Sensing Technology; Sander vitreus; seasonal variation; Species Specificity; surface water; Temperature; Temporal logic; Utah; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water pollution; Water Pollution Control; Water quality; Water Quality - standards; Water temperature; Utah; Clean water act; Bioenergetics; Structured hypotheses; Water quality; Fish performance; Water temperature; Eutrophication; Thermal remote imaging (TIR)
• ISSN: 0364-152X; 1432-1009; 1432-1009
• DOI: 10.1007/s00267-011-9717-1

Anthropogenic impairment of water bodies represents a global environmental concern, yet few attempts have successfully linked fish performance to thermal habitat suitability and fewer have distinguished co-varying water quality constraints. We interfaced fish bioenergetics, field measurements, and Thermal Remote Imaging to generate a spatially-explicit, high-resolution surface of fish growth potential, and next employed a structured hypothesis to detect relationships among measures of fish performance and co-varying water quality constraints. Our thermal surface of fish performance captured the amount and spatial-temporal arrangement of thermally-suitable habitat for three focal species in an extremely heterogeneous reservoir, but interpretation of this pattern was initially confounded by seasonal covariation of water residence time and water quality. Subsequent path analysis revealed that in terms of seasonal patterns in growth potential, catfish and walleye responded to temperature, positively and negatively, respectively; crappie and walleye responded to eutrophy (negatively). At the high eutrophy levels observed in this system, some desired fishes appear to suffer from excessive cultural eutrophication within the context of elevated temperatures whereas others appear to be largely unaffected or even enhanced. Our overall findings do not lead to the conclusion that this system is degraded by pollution; however, they do highlight the need to use a sensitive focal species in the process of determining allowable nutrient loading and as integrators of habitat suitability across multiple spatial and temporal scales. We provide an integrated approach useful for quantifying fish growth potential and identifying water quality constraints on fish performance at spatial scales appropriate for whole-system management.