Geology topics

Todd Hayden

Publications and source records attributed to Todd Hayden.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2025

Movements and survival of hatchery reared juvenile cisco (Coregonus artedi) in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron

Background Cisco ( Coregonus artedi ) were historically abundant throughout Lake Huron, including Saginaw Bay, but only a few remnant populations remain in northern Lake Huron today. Reestablishment of cisco is an important component of management plans to restore sustainable fisheries in Lake Huron. Cisco restoration efforts have focused on the release of hatchery-reared fish, but the fate and behavior of stocked fish after release is unknown. Mortality due to predation and behavior of hatchery-reared fish after release may influence success of restoration stocking programs. Acoustic telemetry tags with predation sensors show promise for tracking movements and survival of juvenile fish; however, guidelines for designing receiver arrays to capture movements and determine the fate of juvenile fish are not well-established. Results We examined whether an acoustic receiver array with approximately 20 km 2 of coverage was sufficient to determine movements and fate of cisco during the first month after release. We implanted 26 juvenile cisco (mean total length = 161 mm) with acoustic tags equipped with a sensor to detect predation. Thirteen fish (50%) moved more than 4 km from the release location and out of the array, seven fish (27%) were consumed by predators while in the array within 17 days of release, and the fates of six fish (23%) were unknown. Of fish that left the array, 50% left between 4 and 7 days after release. No fish were detected after 17 days after release. Cisco moved with water currents during the first day after release, but this was not observed in subsequent days. Concurrent with fish release, detection range was estimated from stationary tags at three locations within the receiver array. Daily estimates of detection range were greater than 50% at 250 m during October 2021. Conclusions This study provides evidence that hatchery-reared juvenile cisco can move more than 4 km within 17 days of release but are vulnerable to predation. To fully quantify sources of mortality and spatial extent of movements by hatchery-reared cisco, future acoustic telemetry studies will require a receiver array designed to track movements of tagged fish and their predators over larger distances than monitored in this study.

Michigan↗

USGS2024

Documentation of a probable spawning run of cisco Coregonus artedi in the Spanish River, Ontario, Canada

Coregonines were historically diverse and abundant in the Laurentian Great Lakes but declined throughout the 19th and 20th centuries due to multiple factors, including overfishing, habitat degradation, and interactions with invasive species. Great Lakes fishery managers are now working to restore coregonines across the basin. An important aspect of restoration efforts is the identification of key habitats, such as spawning habitats. Our understanding of the extent and diversity of coregonine spawning habitats in the Great Lakes is limited. Historical accounts suggest some cisco Coregonus artedi migrated to tributaries to spawn, but contemporary runs have not been reported. Moreover, cisco display considerable phenotypic variation, with different “forms” often occupying specific habitats or regions. We provide evidence for a previously undocumented spawning run of cisco in the Spanish River, a tributary to the North Channel of Lake Huron. We captured 31 mature and ripe fish (25 males, 6 females) approximately 52 km upstream of the river mouth on 15–16 November 2022. The fish ranged in age from 3-9 yr and total length from 287-394 mm. Of these 31 individuals, 27 were morphologically similar to C. artedi manitoulinus , a subspecies of cisco found in the North Channel; however, four individuals more closely resembled cisco captured in other areas of Lake Huron. These findings represent the best evidence of tributary spawning by cisco since the 1880s, and they have important implications for coregonine conservation and restoration efforts. Ongoing work aims to augment our understanding of the ecological and evolutionary importance of this population.

Ontario↗

USGS2023

Spawning locations, movements, and potential for stock mixing of walleye in Green Bay, Lake Michigan

Effective fishery management in large systems relies on understanding how individual stocks contribute to a fishery over spatial and temporal scales. The current conceptual model for management of Walleye Sander vitreus in Green Bay designates Walleye in the northern and southern parts of the bay as distinct stocks, with little mixing between the northern and southern fisheries, and assumes that Walleye in both northern and southern Green Bay primarily spawn in tributaries as opposed to shoreline or offshore reef areas. We used acoustic telemetry to test this conceptual model for Walleye management in Green Bay. Telemetry indicated that the majority of Green Bay Walleye use tributaries for spawning. However, many individuals were assigned to open-water spawning locations during consecutive years in both northern (26%) and southern (21%) Green Bay, suggesting that open-water spawners may represent a larger proportion of the Walleye stocks than previously thought. Differential movement was observed between northern and southern portions of Green Bay, with 56% of Walleye tagged in northern Green Bay crossing receiver lines to move south compared to only 19% of Walleye tagged in southern Green Bay crossing receiver lines to move north. Walleye typically transitioned across these boundaries in summer and fall, suggesting that stock contributions to the fishery in each zone may differ seasonally. Differential movements of northern Green Bay Walleye may be influenced by broad-scale differences in habitat and prey availability, which are likely related to the differential effects of dreissenid mussel invasion in Green Bay. Our results suggest that adjustment of monitoring efforts to account for open-water spawners may provide a more complete picture of stock status. Additionally, more research examining potential food web effects of northern Green Bay Walleye moving into southern Green Bay may be needed to determine how these movements might influence other important species.

Wisconsin↗

USGS2023

Initial insights on the thermal ecology of lake whitefish in northwestern Lake Michigan

Lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis are a native coldwater species supporting important recreational and commercial fisheries in the Laurentian Great Lakes. Climate-related changes in water temperature may have important implications for the future sustainability of these fisheries. However, projecting future habitat availability is difficult because limited information is available on lake whitefish thermal ecology in the region. In this study, archival temperature loggers were implanted into 400 lake whitefish from northwestern Lake Michigan, including Green Bay, during October–November 2017. Loggers recorded temperature for 11 months at 4-hr intervals. Thirteen recovered temperature loggers were used in analyses. In winter (1 December–31 March), temperatures occupied by lake whitefish ranged from 0 to 8.0 °C, while in spring (1 April–31 May) temperatures ranged from 0 to 20.0 °C. In summer (1 June–15 September) and fall (16 September–7 November), lake whitefish occupied temperatures of 4–21.5 and 4–21.0 °C, respectively. Average temperatures in summer (10.8 °C) were within the previously proposed optimal temperature range (10–14 °C) and broad thermal niche (7–17 °C); however, 58% of observations were outside the optimal temperature range and 11% of observations were outside the broad thermal niche. Our results suggest that lake whitefish from northwestern Lake Michigan inhabit temperatures both above and below previously reported expected temperature ranges. This study provides initial insights on lake whitefish thermal ecology in Lake Michigan and can be used as a baseline for future work aimed at determining how lake whitefish habitat availability may change in the future.

Wisconsin↗

USGS2019

Vertical habitat use of adult Walleye conflicts with expectations from fishery-independent surveys

Stock assessments of Walleyes Sander vitreus in Lake Erie rely on a combination of suspended and bottom overnight gill‐net surveys to provide population and demographic information. However, the assumption that Walleyes undertake diel vertical migrations and become available to the suspended gill nets at night has never been validated. To understand how vertical habitat use affects the availability of Walleyes to fishery‐independent surveys, we compared individual behaviors observed by means of acoustic depth telemetry tags (20 individuals; 2013–2016) with catches in paired suspended and bottom gill‐net sets (273 paired sets; 2013–2016) used by management agencies. In contrast to our expectations and observations in other lakes, the mean depths for Walleyes most often occurred in the lower one‐half to one‐third of the water column, and at lake depths <25 m the fish tended to be close to the bottom. The relationship between fish and lake depth was dependent on year and season. At lake depths >15 m, Walleyes were found at shallower depths during stratified periods (i.e., summer) than during unstratified periods (autumn). They were also found at shallower depths in 2015 and 2016 than in 2013 and 2014. In paired autumn gill‐net surveys, (1) the overall proportion of Walleye catch was nearly equal in suspended and bottom gill nets and (2) the proportion of the catch in suspended gill nets declined with fish length. The pattern of decline was dependent on how deep the suspended net was fished and the year in which the data were collected. These results provide evidence that the suspended gill‐net surveys currently being used to assess Walleye demographics in Lake Erie are biased toward the capture small Walleyes, while bottom nets are biased toward the capture of large ones. Future telemetry investigations will be needed to understand whether these biases reflect differences in the depth of habitat between small and large Walleyes.

Lake Erie↗