Relating Water and Otolith Chemistry in Chesapeake Bay, and Their Potential to Identify Essential Seagrass Habitats for Juveniles of an Estuarine-Dependent Fish, Spotted Seatrout (<i>Cynoscion nebulosus</i>)

<p>A quantitative understanding of habitat use of estuarine-dependent fishes is critical to the conservation of their most essential habitats. Because recruitment and fitness may be influenced by the quality of juvenile habitats, developing methods to quantify habitat-specific survivorship is pivotal to such understanding. An initial step to quantify survivorship is to validate the habitat-specific natural tags contained in otoliths. To this aim I investigated the variability in the chemistry of surface waters and otoliths of juvenile spotted seatrout, <em>Cynoscion nebulosus</em>, in five seagrass habitats of Chesapeake Bay, namely: Potomac, Rappahannock, York, Island, and Eastern Shore. I measured Mg, Ca, Mn, Sr, Ba, and La in water and otoliths by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, and δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O in otoliths using an automated carbonate analyzer. Multivariate analyses of variance and regressions were used to test the hypothesis that otoliths accurately record the chemistry of natal habitats of juveniles, whereas cross-validated <em>k</em>-nearest neighbor functions were derived to discriminate habitats based on water and otolith chemistry. Concentration of Mg, Mn, Sr, and Ba in water was significantly different between habitats independent of temporal variation. Classification accuracy of water samples was low in Rappahannock (37%), moderate in Potomac and Eastern Shore (60–70%), and high in York and Island (81–82%) habitats. Weighted regressions showed that salinity could predict accurately [Ba/Ca]_otolith and [La/Ca]_otolith. There was a positive correlation between [Ba/Ca]_otolith and [Ba/Ca]_water, but the relation was not linear as previously found in laboratory experiments. Contrary to expectation, [Sr/Ca]_otolith did not correlate with water chemistry, however there was a predictive relation between [δ¹⁸O]_otolith and [Sr/Ca]_water. Otolith microchemistry of juveniles collected in 1998 and 2001 was significantly different among habitats within and between years, but the ability of trace elements to allocate individual fish to natal habitats was variable (0–82%). However, the combination of [Ba/Ca], [Mn/Ca], with δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O in 2001 otoliths significantly improved classification rates, allowing 82–100% accuracy. These results showed that otolith microchemistry might be useful in identifying specific seagrass beds in Chesapeake Bay, with the potential of being used as natural tag to quantify survivorship and to determine essential habitats for juvenile spotted seatrout.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Biological Sciences

Year dc:date.available

2004

Author dc:creator

• Dorval, Emmanis

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cynthia M. Jones
• Robyn Hannigan
• Kent E. Carpenter

• Chesapeake Bay
• Cynoscion nebulosus
• Estuary
• Otolith
• Seagrass
• Water
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
• Geochemistry
• Marine Biology
• Oceanography

Statement dc:rights

• <p>In Copyright. URI: <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).</p>

Identifier

9780496759699

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.odu.edu:biology_etds-1061