2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/21/2019 | 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM | INFLUENCE OF INTERANNUAL AND SEASONAL WEATHER VARIABILITY ON YOUNG-OF-THE-YEAR BROOK TROUT ABUNDANCE | 250 CF

INFLUENCE OF INTERANNUAL AND SEASONAL WEATHER VARIABILITY ON YOUNG-OF-THE-YEAR BROOK TROUT ABUNDANCE

Weather variation can have widespread effects on reproductive success, potentially altering the demographics and viability of aquatic animal populations. In streams, extreme temperatures coupled with streambed scouring during rain events can reduce survival of juvenile fish, but these mechanisms have seldom been examined over large spatial scales across years. To address this research gap, we analyzed eastern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) population data collected from 2,500 streams across Pennsylvania from 2010 to 2018. Relative abundance of young-of-the-year (%YOY) brook trout was highly synchronized across state management regions in five out of nine years, suggesting that large-scale factors influence population dynamics. Next, using an information theoretic approach and 16 possible parameters, we found that %YOY is lower in years with higher spring precipitation (R2=0.15, p<0.01) and higher maximum winter temperatures (R2=0.31, p<0.0001). Specifically, YOY represented 50-75% of the catch when maximum winter temperature was less than 16ºC, compared to only 5-25% when winter temperature exceeded 22ºC. If this result is ultimately tied to high flows scouring substrate and eggs, then an increased frequency of extreme weather in the future may negatively impact Pennsylvania’s trout populations.

Population
Temperature
ClimateChange

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Presenters/Authors

David J. Janetski (), Indiana University of Pennsylvania, janetski@iup.edu;