Synopsis
We developed and tested a new visual census technique to quantify the importance of vertical habitat structure on the associated fish assemblages in the littoral zone of a freshwater lake. We demonstrated that the primary environmental gradient, accounting for the most variation in the species data, represented a temporal gradient of seasonal characteristics. The secondary environmental gradient was related to the vertical structure at the sampling locations, showing the importance of the vertical component of the environment on fish community structure. Characterizing the vertical component at different resolutions provided different interpretations. The primary difference was the strength of influence of woody material on community structure. Woody material had a stronger influence on community structure throughout the water column when a single vertical unit defined the fish data. The appropriateness of defining the data by either multiple vertical strata or by a single vertical one would be dependent on the objectives of the study, as neither approach was found to explain substantially more variation in the species data. The current study demonstrates that fish are closely associated with particular elements of habitat structure in the littoral zone, even in the absence of major piscivorous predators. We provide a novel study quantifying the vertical multiple habitat structures and habitat use by fish in the water column of a freshwater lake. The new vertical visual census technique can be used to more comprehensively sample the three-dimensional environment of lake littoral zones, and quantify the fish–habitat spatial relationships across a range of abiotic and biotic habitat features.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
G. Catsadorakis (1997) ArticleTitleBreeding birds from reedbeds to alpine meadows Hydrobiologia 351 143–55 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1003080911744
K.W. Cummins (1962) ArticleTitleAn evaluation of some techniques for the collection and analysis of benthic samples with special emphasis on lotic waters The American Midland Naturalist 67 477–504 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2422722
K.B. Gido C.W. Hargrave W.J. Matthews G.D. Schnell D.W. Pogue G.W. Sewell (2002) ArticleTitleStructure of littoral-zone fish communities in relation to habitat, physical, and chemical gradients in a southern reservoir Environmental Biology of Fishes 63 253–63 Occurrence Handle10.1023/A:1014359311188
G.D. Grossman R.E. Ratajczak M. Crawford M.C. Freeman (1998) ArticleTitleAssemblage organization in stream fishes: effects of environmental variation and interspecific interactions Ecological Monographs 68 395–420 Occurrence Handle10.2307/2657245
Jackson, D.A. 1992. Fish and Benthic Invertebrate Communities: Analytical Approaches and Community–Environment Relationships. Ph.D. Dissertation, Zoology, University of Toronto. 191 pp
D.A. Jackson H.H. Harvey (1997) ArticleTitleQualitative and quantitative sampling of lake fish communities Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 54 2807–13 Occurrence Handle10.1139/cjfas-54-12-2807
D.A. Jackson P.R. Peres-Neto J.D. Olden (2001) ArticleTitleWhat controls who is where in freshwater fish communities – The roles of biotic, abiotic, and spatial factors Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58 157–70 Occurrence Handle10.1139/cjfas-58-1-157
A. Keast J. Harker D. Turnbull (1978) ArticleTitleNearshore fish habitat utilization and species associations in Lake Opinicon (Ontario, Canada) Environmental Biology of Fishes 3 173–84 Occurrence Handle10.1007/BF00691941
P. Legendre L. Legendre (1998) Numerical Ecology Elsevier New York 853
P.S.D. MacRae D.A. Jackson (2001) ArticleTitleThe influence of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) predation and habitat complexity on the structure of littoral-zone fish assemblages Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58 342–351 Occurrence Handle10.1139/cjfas-58-2-342
P.S.D. MacRae D.A. Jackson (2006) ArticleTitleCharacterizing north temperate lake littoral fish assemblages: a comparison between distance sampling and minnow traps Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 63 558–568 Occurrence Handle10.1139/f05-240
E.C. Mallory M.S. Ridgway A.M. Gordon N.K. Kaushik (2000) ArticleTitleDistribution of woody debris in a small headwater lake, Central Ontario, Canada Archiv für Hydrobiologie 148 587–606
T.C. Pratt K.E. Smokorowski (2003) ArticleTitleFish habitat management implications of the summer habitat use by littoral fishes in a north temperate, mesotrophic lake Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 60 286–300 Occurrence Handle10.1139/f03-022
C.J.F. ter Braak (1998) CANOCO reference manual and user’s guide to Canoco for Windows: software for canonical community ordination (version 4.0) Smilauer New York 351
M.J. Weaver J.J. Magnuson M.K. Clayton (1996) ArticleTitleHabitat heterogeneity and fish community structure: inferences from North temperate lakes American Fisheries Society Symposium 16 335–46
M.J. Weaver J.J. Magnuson M.K. Clayton (1997) ArticleTitleDistribution of littoral fishes in structurally complex macrophytes Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 54 2277–89 Occurrence Handle10.1139/cjfas-54-10-2277
E.E. Werner J.F. Gilliam D.J. Hall G.G. Mittelbach (1983) ArticleTitleAn experimental test of the effects of predation risk on habitat use in fish Ecology 64 1540–1548 Occurrence Handle10.2307/1937508
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mayo, J.S., Jackson, D.A. Quantifying Littoral Vertical Habitat Structure and Fish Community Associations using Underwater Visual Census. Environ Biol Fish 75, 395–407 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-005-5150-8
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-005-5150-8