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Movement and Habitat Use of Juvenile Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens , Rafinesque, 1817) in a Large Hydroelectric Reservoir (Nelson River, Canada)

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Movement and Habitat Use of Juvenile Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser Fulvescens , Rafinesque, 1817) in a Large Hydroelectric Reservoir (Nelson River, Canada) Received: 2 October 2016 | Accepted: 15 January 2017 DOI: 10.1111/jai.13378 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Movement and habitat use of juvenile Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens , Rafinesque, 1817) in a large hydroelectric reservoir (Nelson River, Canada) C. L. Hrenchuk | C. A. McDougall | P. A. Nelson | C. C. Barth North/South Consultants Inc. , Winnipeg , MB , Canada Summary Movement and habitat utilization of juvenile Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) were Correspondence Claire L. Hrenchuk, North/South Consultants examined in Stephens Lake, a large hydroelectric reservoir on the Nelson River, Inc., Winnipeg, MB, Canada. Manitoba, Canada, between 21 June 2011, and 15 October 2012. Stephens Lake is Email: [email protected] defined by a sharp hydraulic gradient at the upstream end (Gull Rapids) and a pro- Funding information nounced reservoir transition zone (RTZ ), characterized by a change in substrate com- Keeyask Hydropower Limited Partnership ; Manitoba Hydro’ s Lake Sturgeon Stewardship position from coarse to fine. Twenty juvenile Lake Sturgeon <600 mm fork length and Enhancement Program were captured in the RTZ , implanted with acoustic transmitters, and tracked using stationary receivers. Our primary hypothesis considered that, if foraging behaviour was contingent on sand substrate, these fish would spend the majority of the open- water season foraging in the relatively small area where hydraulic gradients dictate sand deposition. Data indicated that tracked individuals were highly bottom oriented, and utilized deeper thalweg habitats exclusively during the first open-water season. On average, juveniles spent only 22% of their open-water time in the RTZ (river kilo- meter [rkm] 4.5–7.0). Most fish spent more time upstream as opposed to downstream, but a few individuals did utilize backwatered thalweg areas, suggesting that silt-overlay habitats may be suitable for foraging. A seasonal spatial shift in distribution was also observed. Juveniles vacated the RTZ as winter progressed, moving further down- stream and occasionally laterally into backwatered shallows, potentially avoiding ex- treme ice conditions and a large hanging ice dam that develops downstream of Gull Rapids. After ice break-up, most individuals with active tags returned to the upstream end of Stephens Lake. The results add to the growing body of evidence that suggests factors other than habitat suitability influence Lake Sturgeon movement and utiliza- tion patterns, raising questions about the mechanisms for core-area affinity in this species. 1 | INTRODUCTION have been cited as the most important factors in population declines of the species observed over the past 150 years (Beamesderfer & Farr, The Lake Sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) was once abundant in many of 1997 ; Birstein, 1993 ; Haxton, Whelan, & Bruch, 2014 ). Assessments the lakes and rivers throughout their North American range (Harkness made during the past 30 years have considered the Lake Sturgeon & Dymond, 1961 ; Scott & Crossman, 1973 ). Over-exploitation, habitat to be threatened throughout most of its extant range in the United alterations and migratory impediments caused by dams, as well as pol- States (Billard & Lecointre, 2001 ; Peterson, Vecsei, & Jennings, 2007 ; lution in the Great Lakes, Mississippi, and Hudson Bay drainage basins, Williams et al., 1989 ), and populations in Western Canada were J Appl Ichthyol. 2017;33:665–680. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/jai © 2017 Blackwell Verlag GmbH | 665 666 | HRENCHUK ET AL. (c. 2006) recommended to be listed as endangered under the Species varies with geomorphology (e.g., Boreal Shield, Prairie, etc.), across the at Risk Act (COSEWIC, 2006 ). Over the past several decades, com- species’ range and needs to be considered. Many authors have empha- mercial fisheries have been closed (Bogue, 2000 ; Haxton et al., 2014 ; sized the importance of sand or a combination of sand/gravel substrate Stewart, 2009 ) and tighter environmental regulations appear to have as foraging habitat for young Lake Sturgeon (Benson et al., 2005 ; Boase allowed several systems, particularly those on which pulp and paper et al., 2014 ; Chiasson et al., 1997 ; Holtgren & Auer, 2004 ; Kempinger, mills were built, to recover from pollution (Rusak & Mosindy, 1997 ; D. 1996 ; Peake, 1999 ; Smith & King, 2005 ; Werner & Hayes, 2004 ), so Gibson, Ontario Power Generation, pers. comm.), which bodes well for the predicted near-absence of this substrate in the reservoir for the the recovery of Lake Sturgeon populations in these areas. However, Keeyask Generating Station (GS; currently under construction) on the the demand for sustainable and renewable energy is increasing across Nelson River, Manitoba was flagged as potentially problematic during North America and many of the larger river systems in northern pre-Project planning in the late 2000’ s (Keeyask Hydropower Limited Manitoba, Ontario, and Québec, which have existing or are favoured Partnership, 2012 ). However, juvenile Lake Sturgeon had recently (c. for future hydroelectric development, are inhabited by Lake Sturgeon. ~2010) been found to forage extensively over non-sand/gravel sub- Large dams can dramatically alter aquatic habitat in the rivers they strates such as clay and silt in the Winnipeg River, Manitoba (Barth are constructed on, in part due to physical and chemical changes as- et al., 2009 ), and the Grasse River, New York (Trested et al., 2011 ) sug- sociated with the reservoirs created for energy storage (Magilligan & gesting that the rarity of sand might not be problematic to fulfill juve- Nislow, 2005 ; Rosenberg, Bodaly, & Usher, 1995 ; Rosenberg, McCully, nile life history requirements. Still, given the possibility of compromised & Pringle, 2000 ; Rosenberg et al., 2005 ; Yi, Tang, Yang, & Chen, 2014 ; recruitment, it was deemed prudent to assess juvenile Lake Sturgeon Zhou, Zhao, Song, Bi, & Zhang, 2014 ). Whereas the historical riverine movement and habitat use patterns in a Nelson River reservoir charac- habitat may have been relatively homogenous, within a mature im- terized by a pronounced RTZ and a scarcity of sand substrate. poundment habitat characteristics tend to vary considerably from the In 2011 and 2012, 20 juvenile Lake Sturgeon were tracked using upstream extent of backwatering downstream to the lower end. As a stationary acoustic telemetry in Stephens Lake, a large impoundment general rule, water depth in the thalweg tends to increase with prox- created following the construction of the Kettle GS. Our primary hy- imity to the downstream dam and velocities tend to decrease (Baxter, pothesis considered that, should the foraging ability of juvenile Lake 1977 ). As a result, sediment transport and deposition processes are Sturgeon in Stephens Lake be negatively impacted by non-sand sub- altered and fines settle out in areas of the thalweg where they for- strates, acoustically tagged fish would spend the majority of their merly did not (Baxter, 1977 ; Bogen & Bonsnes, 2001 ; Gore & Shields, open- water time foraging in the relatively small area where sand oc- 1995 ; Hjulström, 1935 ; Wohl, 2015 ). While the specifics are driven by curs. More generally, the study objectives were to improve the under- channel morphology, the physical characteristics of the surrounding standing of both diel and seasonal influence on movement patterns landscape (overburden, terrestrial vegetation, etc.), and infrastructure and habitat use by juvenile Lake Sturgeon in large impoundments. engineering, a river to Reservoir Transition Zone (RTZ) tends to de- velop between the shallower, higher velocity, and coarser substrate 2 | METHODS habitat in the upstream section of the impoundment and the deeper, lower-velocity, and finer substrate habitat of the downstream section 2.1 | Study area of the impoundment. Habitat alterations resulting from impoundment of large rivers The Nelson River drains an area of ~1,060,000 km2 , spread across the by large dams can dramatically affect aquatic communities, which is provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba (Rosenberg et al., particularly important for species of conservation concern. Given that 2005 ). It flows 644 km from its Lake Winnipeg outlet to Hudson Bay. hydroelectric development on large rivers is likely to continue for the Hydroelectric development on the Nelson River began in 1961 with foreseeable future, an improved understanding of Lake Sturgeon hab- construction of the Kelsey GS. Subsequently, four additional GS’ s itat use in altered environments could help to predict and mitigate were built; Kettle (1974), Jenpeg (1979), Long Spruce (1979), and any potential negative impacts on populations. While movement and Limestone (1990). Construction of the Keeyask GS began in 2014. habitat use patterns of juvenile Lake Sturgeon have been studied in Since 1976, Nelson River base flow has been regulated at the outlet numerous locations within the Great Lakes (Altenritter, Wieten, Ruetz, of Lake Winnipeg to maximize generating capacity during the winter & Smith, 2013 ; Benson, Sutton, Elliott, & Meronek, 2005 ; Boase et al., months. The Nelson River hydrograph has also been altered by the 2014 ; Holtgren & Auer, 2004 ; Kempinger, 1996 ; Smith & King, 2005 ; Churchill River Diversion Project (CRD; 1978), which increased inflow Trested, Chan, Bridges, & Isely, 2011 ), Mississippi (Knights, Vallazza, via the Burntwood River tributary, which joins the Nelson at Split Lake Zigler, & Dewey, 2002 ) and Hudson Bay (Barth, Anderson, Henderson, (Newbury, McCullough, &
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