Movement of an imperiled esocid fish in an agricultural drain

Benjamin J Zdasiuk; Marie-Josée Fortin; Julia E Colm; D Andrew R Drake; Nicholas E Mandrak

doi:10.1186/s40462-023-00420-2

Movement of an imperiled esocid fish in an agricultural drain

Mov Ecol. 2023 Dec 13;11(1):77. doi: 10.1186/s40462-023-00420-2.

Authors

Benjamin J Zdasiuk^{1

2}, Marie-Josée Fortin³, Julia E Colm⁴, D Andrew R Drake⁴, Nicholas E Mandrak⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada. b.zdasiuk@mail.utoronto.ca.
² Simon Fraser University Biology, 8888 University Dr W, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada. b.zdasiuk@mail.utoronto.ca.
³ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, 25 Willcocks St., Toronto, ON, M5S 3B2, Canada.
⁴ Great Lakes Laboratory for Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 867 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, ON, L7S 1A1, Canada.
⁵ Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Toronto, ON, M1C 1A4, Canada.

Abstract

Animal movement is increasingly affected by human alterations to habitat and climate change. In wetland systems, widespread hydrologic alterations from agriculture have changed the shape, function, and stability of shallow streams and wetland habitats. These changes in habitat quality and quantity may be especially consequential for freshwater fishes such as Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus), a small predatory fish found in disjunct populations across southern Ontario and listed as Special Concern under Canada's Species at Risk Act. To characterize Grass Pickerel movement response to stream-channel alterations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada implemented a tracking study to monitor the movements of a Grass Pickerel population in an agricultural drain on the Niagara Peninsula (Ontario, Canada). From 2009 to 2013, 2007 Grass Pickerel were tagged and tracked in the 37.3 km² Beaver Creek watershed using a combination of mark-recapture surveys and eight fully automated passive integrated transponder tag antennas. Most individuals moved within 500 m (i.e., stationary fish) while 16% of the fish moved > 500 m (i.e., mobile fish), with a maximum median movement distance of 1.89 km and a maximum movement distance of 13.5 km (a long-tail distribution). Most movements occurred near the largest confluence where only a few were long-distance upstream or downstream movements. Mobile fish were larger than their stationary counterparts. Grass Pickerel in sites with higher abundance had more mobile fish, implying potential density dependence. Our results highlight that, while a long-distance dispersal ability exists in extant Grass Pickerel populations, the current conditions of riverscapes may prevent these dispersals from occurring. For declining Grass Pickerel populations, limitations to their movement ecology may substantially increase the likelihood of local extirpations.

Keywords: Agricultural drains; Fish condition; Grass Pickerel (Esox americanus vermiculatus); Monitoring; Passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags; Species at risk.