Negative Effects of Sedimentation on Lithophilic Spawning Fish Embryos and Methods to Potentially Mitigate These Effects

Alexander James Gatch, Purdue University

Abstract

Natural and constructed rocky reef habitats constitute important areas for lithophilic spawning fishes and their embryonic and larval offspring. Interstitial spaces created by the structure of rocky reefs create micro-environments where incubating embryos and juvenile fishes are potentially protected from predators. However, if interstitial spaces are filled or blocked by sediment deposition or biofouling, the reef structure may lose the protective benefits for embryonic and larval fish survival. Lake whitefish (Coregonus clupeaformis) and walleye (Sander vitreus) are native Great Lake lithophilic broadcast spawning fish that use rocky spawning habitats that are vulnerable to degradation caused by deposition of suspended sediments. To restore degraded rocky reef habitat, common practices include addition of material to existing reef structures or construction of new reefs, but both of these practices can be costly and time intensive. In this study, we measured the effect of different types and amounts of sediment cover on hatching success of walleye eggs and assessed if differences in female walleye (female length and egg size) account for tolerance to sediment cover. Additionally, we explored an alternative approach for reef restoration, custodial maintenance, in which we created two novel devices to potentially clean rocky reef habitat. We carried out two laboratory experiments in 2018 and 2019 to test the effect of sediment cover on hatching success of walleye eggs (2018) and to test how female identity and female length or egg size may interact with sediment cover to influence hatching success (2019). We exposed walleye eggs to instantaneous sediment cover (0 mm – 7mm) of either sand (course) or silt (fine) sediments from fertilization until day 15 of incubation. Our results indicated that walleye eggs were sensitive to silt cover (71% mortality- 2 mm cover silt) but not sand (47% mortality- 7mm cover sand). While there was an indication that hatching success was marginally related to female length and egg size, we concluded that sediment cover seemed to have similar effects on eggs, regardless of female length or egg size. The susceptibility of walleye eggs to mortality caused by sediment cover underscores the need for non-degraded spawning habitat. Our two cleaning devices used either propulsion or pressurized water jets to clean sediments from the rocky structure as they were towed behind a small vessel (i.e., did not require the use of SCUBA divers). We used devices to clean two natural rocky reefs in Saginaw Bay, Lake Huron in 2018 and 2019. We measured relative hardness before and after use of devices on cleaned and uncleaned study plots to determine effectiveness of devices. In addition, we measured egg deposition by fall (lake whitefish) and spring (walleye) lithophilic spawners on study plots to determine potential differences in fish usage of cleaned and uncleaned areas. We found that cleaning devices contributed to changes in relative hardness among study plots. Egg deposition was also variable on study plots but in general, egg deposition was consistently highest on treatment plots cleaned by our device that used propulsion. The practicality of cleaning devices was seemingly related to the magnitude of degradation of rocky reefs, nevertheless, our results show that the use of these or similar devices may potentially increase egg deposition by creating areas of higher-quality habitat. While more testing is necessary to fully understand the potential of our reef cleaning devices, this two-year study suggests that these devices may be capable of restoring degraded rocky spawning habitat which could potentially minimize the negative effects associated with sediment degradation on lithophilic spawning fish.

Degree

M.Sc.

Advisors

Höök, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Ecology|Recreation|Sedimentary Geology

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