Download or read book Environmental Factors Associated with the Spatial and Temporal Occurrence of Fish Eggs and Larvae During Pelagic Drift in Lower Green Bay, Wisconsin written by Marian Lynne Shaffer and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The survival of fishes in the early life stages is the primary determinant of future cohort strength, and the probability of survival is directly related to environmental conditions that change in time and space. The distribution of pelagic drifting fish eggs and larvae and the factors that drive them are largely unknown in Green Bay, Lake Michigan. In this study, two sampling methods were used to assess the influences of space, time, and environmental conditions on ichthyoplankton assemblages in Lower Green Bay and theFox River during summers 2014 and 2015. Ichthyoplankton samples were collected biweekly at the same 35 sites, and environmental data including dissolved oxygen, water temperature, pH, turbidity, and chlorophyll a were simultaneously collected at each site to characterize environmental conditions. A total of 36,935 larval fish and 65,531 eggs were collected in this study. Statistical analyses revealed that environmental factors influence variation in the abundance and distribution of fish eggs and larvae, specifically water temperature, pH, chlorophyll a, dissolved oxygen, and depth. However, space combined with environmental factors also contributed substantially to ichthyoplankton variability. Preferred spawning and nursery habitats combined with the effects of environmental forces were considered to be the major causes of spatial variation. Although best-fitting models did not include the effect of time, abundance of fish eggs and larvae showed temporal variation that was determined to be due to the reproductive strategy of adult fishes in Lower Green Bay and the Fox River.