The Thermal Regime of South Bay, Manitoulin Island

1967 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. M. McCombie

The thermal regime of South Bay is described from records collected from 1953 to 1962 with thermometers, thermographs, and bathythermographs, the last being cast at 11 stations along the bay and one in Lake Huron. Warming begins in April and thermal stratification is established in June. Shallow areas warm more rapidly than deep in the spring and cool more quickly in autumn. The boundary between the epilimnion and the thermocline becomes sharper as summer advances but the transition from thermocline to hypolimnion remains gradual. The average seasonal trend of surface temperatures is a sine function with a maximum of 66 F in mid August and a minimum of 34 F in late March, though values outside this range occur frequently. At 180 ft the maximum of 47 F is attained in November. At the lake and outermost bay stations there is a temperature slump in June and July which may be due to an upwelling in the lake. Evidence of an exchange of water between the lake and bay is seen in vertical temperature sections and water movements Variations in epilimnial temperatures are correlated with those of the air temperature, but variations in epilimnial and hypolimnial temperatures appear to be unrelated. Finally, literature describing the influence of temperature on the year class strength of smallmouth bass, the distribution of lake trout, the growth of yellow perch, and the life history of Pontoporeia in South Bay is reviewed.

1987 ◽  
Vol 44 (S2) ◽  
pp. s10-s14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan A. Henderson ◽  
F. E. J. Fry

Of the nine species caught in pound and gill nets in South Bay, Lake Huron (lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis), rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax), lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), splake (S. namaycush × S. fontinalis), burbot (Lota lota), lake hering (Coregonus artedii), alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus), white sucker (Catostomus commersoni), and yellow perch (Perca flavescens)), only yellow perch, white sucker, and lake whitefish were significantly related to the abundances of all other fish species (multiple regression) from 1965 to 1984. For the longer period (pound nets 1949–84), all but smelt, burbot, and white sucker were dependent upon variations in the abundance of the nine other species. For the same period (1965–84) and species (nine), the abundances only of yellow perch and white suckers were significantly and positively related in two basins of the Bay. None of the inverse correlations between species abundances was significant in both basins. Within the Outer Basin, only the correlations between alewife and lake herring (r = −0.49, r = −0.45) and yellow perch and white sucker (r = +0.55, r = +0.47) were significant in the same direction for both time periods (1949–64 and 1965–84, respectively). We concluded that there was little evidence that the abundances of species were affected significantly by interspecific influences.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (9) ◽  
pp. 1330-1341 ◽  
Author(s):  
William W. Fetzer ◽  
Collin J. Farrell ◽  
James R. Jackson ◽  
Lars G. Rudstam

Walleye (Sander vitreus), smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu), and largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) are common top predators across many north temperate lakes, but no previous analyses have assessed factors driving their combined impact on mortality of a shared prey, yellow perch (Perca flavescens). We estimated consumption dynamics of walleye, smallmouth bass, and largemouth bass during 3 years that differed in age-0 yellow perch year-class strength and evaluated the relative contribution of each predator to age-0 yellow perch mortality, in Oneida Lake, New York, USA. Habitat-specific diet composition and population densities were integrated with temperature and growth rates to parameterize a bioenergetics model and estimate annual consumption of major diet items. Walleye were the dominant predator in both offshore and inshore habitats, while smallmouth bass and largemouth bass were also important inshore predators. Consumption of age-0 yellow perch by all three predators was positively correlated to age-0 yellow perch year-class strength, but our ability to account for age-0 yellow perch mortality decreased during years when year-class strength was strong. Within each year, predation by the three species accounted for all observed age-0 yellow perch mortality in late summer and fall, but not in the early summer, suggesting other predators in the lake likely predate on the youngest, most vulnerable yellow perch. These results are important for understanding how diverse predator communities can alter the spatial and temporal availability of prey refuges and influence mortality of a shared prey.


1953 ◽  
Vol 31 (6) ◽  
pp. 547-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard L. Saunders

Swimbladder gas samples were analyzed from 10 species of fish caught at various depths extending from the surface to 486 ft. in Lake Huron and adjoining waters. The physoclists studied, yellow perch and burbot, had gas compositions which agreed with previous findings. From progressively greater depths, these displayed decreasing nitrogen percentages and increasing oxygen percentages. The physostomes, lake trout, lake whitefish, shallowwater cisco, deepwater cisco, bloater, American smelt, white sucker, and longnose sucker, displayed strikingly high percentages of nitrogen and correspondingly low percentages of oxygen at all depths. Carbon dioxide was found only in traces in both groups. Results of flotation pressures determined for American smelt, shallowwater cisco, and bloater indicated that most specimens were probably buoyant at depths of capture and that results of gas analyses were indicative of the gas compositions at depths of capture. Both physostomes and physoclists from the greatest depths of capture displayed swimbladder nitrogen pressures in excess of 0.8 of an atmosphere, the partial pressure of dissolved nitrogen in most natural waters. The excess was slight in physoclists but in physostomes it was nearly equal to the total (hydrostatic plus atmospheric) pressure.


1955 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Fraser

The smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) population of South Bay, Lake Huron and the sport fishery imposed on it have been studied by means of marking and creel census carried out during the years 1947 to 1952 inclusive. Population estimates of legal-sized bass (over 10 inches–fork length), based on the recovery of marked fish, show a decrease from 5,900 fish in 1947 to 2,900 in 1949 with an increase again to 5,700 in 1952. The number of bass caught per 100 rod-hours in these years was 89, 51 and 87, respectively. The recovery of the population from its low in 1949 was due solely to the 1947 year-class which dominated the fishery in 1950, 1951 and 1952, contributing 34%, 71% and 67%, respectively, of the anglers' catch in these years. Analysis of scale samples of the anglers' catch shows considerable variation in year-class strength. In contrast to the 3,500 fish contributed to the anglers' creel by the 1947 year-class, the 1945 year-class contributed only 400 fish.South Bay bass enter the sport fishery in small numbers at age III and 70% of the anglers' catch consisted of age-III to age-V fish. Sixty per cent of the legal-sized population of bass present in South Bay in one year are taken by anglers in the succeeding 4–5 years at the present exploitation.A large percentage of the bass population is located in the Inner Basin of South Bay where they are dispersed in varying concentrations along the shoreline. During the five-year study 3,331 bass were tagged and, although the loss of tags was high, 692 were recaptured by trap nets in the same season they were released. Eighty-five per cent of these were taken within two miles of their release point. Of 60 bass recaptured a year after tagging, 43 (72%) were taken within two miles of their release point. Only five per cent of all recorded recaptures were caught over five miles from their release point. Larger bass tended to range farther than small bass.


1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1839-1848 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. R. Spangler ◽  
N. R. Payne ◽  
G. K. Winterton

Percids have never dominated the commercial catch from Canadian waters of Lake Huron but coincident with declining salmonid production, they contributed about 17% of the commercial landings from 1940 to 1975. Walleye (Stizostedion vitreum vitreum) production declined gradually over the past century whereas yellow perch (Perca flavescens) production increased irregularly since 1910.Walleye occur in relatively discrete stocks associated with rivers, inlets, and estuaries in the North Channel and Georgian Bay whereas southern Lake Huron stocks are seasonal residents of the southeastern rim of the main basin. Yellow perch are ubiquitous throughout the littoral waters of the lake. Growth rates of walleye are similar to those for more southerly populations in the Great Lakes and year-class strength is highly variable. Angling and commercial fishing contribute significantly to mortality rates in exploited stocks but deteriorating environmental conditions are probably more important to the persistence of walleye stocks in Lake Huron. At least one stock is presently threatened by industrial acidification of the watershed. Key words: Percidae, Lake Huron, production, population biology, Stizostedion, Perca


Toxins ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 445
Author(s):  
Arthur Zastepa ◽  
Todd R. Miller ◽  
L. Cynthia Watson ◽  
Hedy Kling ◽  
Susan B. Watson

The understanding of deep chlorophyll layers (DCLs) in the Great Lakes—largely reported as a mix of picoplankton and mixotrophic nanoflagellates—is predominantly based on studies of deep (>30 m), offshore locations. Here, we document and characterize nearshore DCLs from two meso-oligotrophic embayments, Twelve Mile Bay (TMB) and South Bay (SB), along eastern Georgian Bay, Lake Huron (Ontario, Canada) in 2014, 2015, and 2018. Both embayments showed the annual formation of DCLs, present as dense, thin, metalimnetic plates dominated by the large, potentially toxic, and bloom-forming cyanobacteria Planktothrix cf. isothrix. The contribution of P. cf. isothrix to the deep-living total biomass (TB) increased as thermal stratification progressed over the ice-free season, reaching 40% in TMB (0.6 mg/L at 9.5 m) and 65% in South Bay (3.5 mg/L at 7.5 m) in 2015. The euphotic zone in each embayment extended down past the mixed layer, into the nutrient-enriched hypoxic hypolimnia, consistent with other studies of similar systems with DCLs. The co-occurrence of the metal-oxidizing bacteria Leptothrix spp. and bactivorous flagellates within the metalimnetic DCLs suggests that the microbial loop plays an important role in recycling nutrients within these layers, particularly phosphate (PO4) and iron (Fe). Samples taken through the water column in both embayments showed measurable concentrations of the cyanobacterial toxins microcystins (max. 0.4 µg/L) and the other bioactive metabolites anabaenopeptins (max. ~7 µg/L) and cyanopeptolins (max. 1 ng/L), along with the corresponding genes (max. in 2018). These oligopeptides are known to act as metabolic inhibitors (e.g., in chemical defence against grazers, parasites) and allow a competitive advantage. In TMB, the 2018 peaks in these oligopeptides and genes coincided with the P. cf. isothrix DCLs, suggesting this species as the main source. Our data indicate that intersecting physicochemical gradients of light and nutrient-enriched hypoxic hypolimnia are key factors in supporting DCLs in TMB and SB. Microbial activity and allelopathy may also influence DCL community structure and function, and require further investigation, particularly related to the dominance of potentially toxigenic species such as P. cf. isothrix.


1997 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 1299-1305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert France

The purpose of the present study was to determine if riparian deforestation would expose lake surfaces to stronger winds and therefore bring about deepening of thermoclines and resulting habitat losses for cold stenotherms such as lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). Removal of protective riparian trees through wind blowdown and two wildfires was found to triple the overwater windspeeds and produce thermocline deepening in two lakes at the Experimental Lakes Area. A survey of thermal stratification patterns in 63 northwestern Ontario lakes showed that lakes around which riparian trees had been removed a decade before through either clearcutting or by a wildfire were found to have thermocline depths over 2 m deeper per unit fetch length compared with lakes surrounded by mature forests. Riparian tree removal will therefore exacerbate hypolimnion habitat losses for cold stenotherms that have already been documented to be occurring as a result of lake acidification, eutrophication, and climate warming.


1977 ◽  
Vol 34 (10) ◽  
pp. 1774-1783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lloyd L. Smith Jr.

In an investigation of the commercial fishery of Red Lakes, Minnesota, for the 46-yr period 1930–75, catch statistics were analyzed, and the dynamics of the perch and walleye populations were examined. Mean annual yields of walleye for two statistical periods, 1930–53 and 1954–75, were 309,900 and 245,100 kg, respectively for walleyes, and 96,400 and 109,500 kg for perch. Annual abundance (CPE based on average catches per day per 5-net units of gill nets) varied from 3.8 to 64.6 kg for walleye, and from 2.5 to 34.4 kg for perch. Causes of fluctuations in harvestable stock were directly related to strength of year-classes and to growth rate during the season of capture. Year-class strength was not related to the abundance of parent stock or of potential predators. The respective strengths of year-classes of perch and walleye in the same year were positively correlated (r = 0.859, P < 0.01), and are directly related to climatic factors. Growth rate of walleye in different calendar years varied from +30.7 to −42.2% of mean growth, and that of perch from +13.4 to −8.6% (1941–56). Growing season began in mid-June and was almost over by September 1. Walleye yield could be enhanced by starting harvest July 1 instead of early June. Perch yield could be improved by harvesting small perch. Key words: Percidae, Perca, population dynamics, Stizostedion, long-term yield


1980 ◽  
Vol 37 (11) ◽  
pp. 2021-2038 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. J. Christie ◽  
D. P. Kolenosky

Sea lamprey produced in other areas of Lake Ontario appeared to be responsible for significant levels of predation on target species of the eastern outlet basin. The life history of the lamprey is simple with only one parasitic generation present in the lake during the feeding period. Wound frequencies on gillnetted whitefish were influenced by season, fish size, gillnet set duration, and a large random error component which suggested a contagious distribution. Scar frequencies were influenced by fish age and indicated improved survival of whitefish when fish weight exceeded lamprey weight by 43 times. Lamprey impact on the whitefish stocks would probably have been more important at lower fishing intensities. The lamprey may have been prey limited, and size and species preference were probably such that lake trout and burbot were not buffered against sea lamprey by white suckers or whitefish. The analysis favored the view that lamprey were innocuous in 19th century Lake Ontario by reason of prey size and density, but climatic and other environmental effects could also have been important.Key words: sea lamprey, lake whitefish, Lake Ontario


2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel A. Abma ◽  
Gordon Paterson ◽  
Anne McLeod ◽  
G. Doug Haffner

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