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Habitat Use of Adult Lake Sturgeon

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Habitat Use of Adult Lake Sturgeon HABITAT USE OF ADULT LAKE STURGEON ACIPENSER FULVESCENS IN POOL 24 OF THE MISSSISSIPPI RIVER A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES OF WESTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLIMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF SCIENCE BY GREG SNELLEN DR. TIMOTHY W. SPIER, ADVISOR 2008 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Brian Todd and Travis Moore for securing funding from the Missouri Department of Conservation, and providing assistance to myself. I would also like to thank Fred Swan, Stan Buxman, Darrel Comstock, Jim Dockery, Randy Haydon, Ross Dames, Chris Williamson, Matt Afflerbaugh, of the Missouri Department of Conservation for helping with tracking, capture and surgery, Mark Miller for assisting me on all aspects of this project and providing valuable knowledge as we both learned about how to capture and track lake sturgeon, Ron Brooks, Dr. James Garvey, Sara Tripp, and Adam Lohmeyer of Southern Illinois University for downloading VR2’s and technical assistance; Brian Johnson from the St. Louis USACOE for providing the Cobb classification; Chris Trefly from the USACOE for assisting with temperature data. Finally, this thesis would not have been possible without the efforts of my committee members Dr. Tim Spier, Travis Moore and Dr. Richard Anderson. The experimental design, statistical analysis, the majority of the edits to the document and supervision of all other efforts geared toward its completion of this thesis were based on the devoted efforts of Dr. Spier. Travis Moore started a pilot project that became the graduate research project this thesis is based on. He was the driving force behind the securing of funding and support for the two plus years of field work and other expenses, and coordinated all field efforts. Travis gave me the opportunity to work as a crew leader on the pilot project and then diligently worked to give me an opportunity to go to graduate school and write ii this document. My thanks to Dr. Anderson for securing support through the university, coordinating funding and providing input for the final version of this document. iii ABSTRACT Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were nearly extirpated from Missouri waters in the early 1900’s. The Missouri Department of Conservation started restocking lake sturgeon in 1984 and as of December 1, 2004 approximately 286,056 were released in Mark Twain Lake, the Missouri River and the Upper Mississippi River. We are lacking basic information needed to evaluate the current lake sturgeon population. The most critical information needed concerns adult lake sturgeon movement and habitat use, with special emphasis towards identifying spawning sites. Understanding habitat use, movement rates and natural recruitment are important for determining future stocking needs and assessing the current lake sturgeon population Twenty five lake sturgeon were captured and implanted with radio or acoustic transmitters and tracked on a weekly basis during warm months of the year and on a monthly basis during the cold months between Fall of 2004 through Fall of 2006. Data were also collected from passive receivers that record data continuously. I used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to summarize lake sturgeon habitat use. Habitat availability was measured individually based on the estimates of each fish’s home range, and I compared habitat use to availability using Johnson’s (1980) technique. Lake sturgeon selected areas near Lock and Dam 22, but most fish used a variety of habitats. Side channels were the least selected habitat. Habitat selection was similar for all seasons, but home range locations varied with seasons. During winter, lake sturgeon used the downstream portions of the pool, and during summer frequented upstream portions of Pool 24. Lake sturgeon movement was highest in the spring and fall with iv minimal movement during the winter. No lake sturgeon spawning was documented during the study period. v TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Distribution ..................................................................................................................... 1 History............................................................................................................................. 1 Reproductive Biology ..................................................................................................... 3 Current Status.................................................................................................................. 4 Project Goals ................................................................................................................... 5 MATERIALS AND METHODS ........................................................................................ 7 Study Site ........................................................................................................................ 7 Capture and Tracking ...................................................................................................... 7 Surgical Procedure ..................................................................................................... 9 Tracking Procedure .................................................................................................. 10 Movement Data ......................................................................................................... 11 Analysis......................................................................................................................... 13 Habitat Classification ............................................................................................... 13 Habitat Analysis ........................................................................................................ 14 Home and Core Ranges ............................................................................................ 16 Movement .................................................................................................................. 17 RESULTS ......................................................................................................................... 20 Habitat Use.................................................................................................................... 22 Seasonal Analysis...................................................................................................... 22 Home Range .............................................................................................................. 28 Movement ..................................................................................................................... 32 Substrate ........................................................................................................................ 40 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................... 42 Reproduction ................................................................................................................. 42 Radio vs. Acoustic Tags ............................................................................................... 43 Habitat Use.................................................................................................................... 45 Movement ..................................................................................................................... 50 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 51 LITERATURE CITED ..................................................................................................... 54 vi LIST OF TABLES 1. Tracking and tagging information for all lake sturgeon in this study………………..21 2. Pairwise comparison of habitats selected by both radio and acoustic-tagged fish (combined).…………………………………………………………………………...23 3. Seasonal habitat selection for by both radio and acoustic-tagged fish (combined), with pair-wise comparison of habitats for spring, summer, and fall season using the Waller-Duncan procedure…………………………………………...……………27 4. Size and scope of home ranges and core ranges for all lake sturgeon in pool 24……………………………………………………….…………...……….………..29 5. Pairwise comparisons of acoustic-tagged and radio-tagged (combined)....................30 6. Season pairwise comparisons calculated using a Dunn’s nonparametric post hoc test after a significant Kruskal Wallis test (p=0.01)..………………..….……….33 7. Results of substrate samples taken during the 2006 sampling season……………….41 vii LIST OF FIGURES 1. Pool 24 of the Mississippi River is on the border between Missouri and Illinois………………………………………………………………………………….8 2. VR2 passive receiver locations for Pool 24..…………………….…………………...12 3. Description of habitats used for analysis of lake sturgeon locations. ..………….…....15 4. Example of 95% home range and 50% core range calculation for Pool 24 lake sturgeon number 164.314. ..……………………………………….…..……………...19 5. Comparison of percent use and percent available habitat in Pool 24. ..…………...…24 6. Comparison of radio and acoustic tagged lake sturgeon habitat use and the available habitat……………………………………………...………………………..25 7. Average percent available habitat based on the individual home range of each fish compared to the average percent use. ..………………………..…………..…………31 8. Average acoustic-tagged lake sturgeon movement per season……………………....34 9. Average monthly movement
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