Performance of temperature and dissolved oxygen criteria to predict habitat use by lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)

Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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Abstract

We compared theoretical habitat volumes, determined from traditional combinations of temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration (DO) boundaries, with in situ habitat use by acoustically tagged lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush). The widely used criteria of 8–12 °C underestimated lake trout habitat use by 68%–80%. Instead, combined temperature (<12 or 15 °C) and DO (>4 or 6 mg·L–1) criteria most closely matched lake trout habitat use, had a similar seasonal trend as the tagged fish, suggested modest reductions (5% of total lake volume) in habitat during a warmer year, and performed best when the constraints of temperature and DO were most limiting. All data were collected in a small boreal shield lake (27 ha, zmax = 21 m) at the Experimental Lakes Area in northwestern Ontario, Canada, during two contrasting periods of thermal stratification (2003: warmer and longer; 2004: cooler and shorter), providing an assessment of observed and theoretical habitat volumes over current environmental extremes.

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Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Performance of temperature and dissolved oxygen criteria to predict habitat use by lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush)
Series title Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
DOI 10.1139/F09-129
Volume 66
Issue 11
Year Published 2009
Language English
Publisher Canadian Science Publishing
Description 13 p.
First page 2011
Last page 2023
Country Canada
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