RECRUITMENT DYNAMICS OF AGE-0 LARGEMOUTH BASS ALONG A LATITUDINAL GRADIENT OF FLORIDA LAKES By MARK WAYNE ROGERS A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2007 1 © 2007 Mark Wayne Rogers 2 To Kristin and our future together 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My research was funded by a grant from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and I was supported by a UF CALS Alumni Fellowship. Other financial support was provided by the AFS Southern Division Reservoir Committee Robert M. Jenkins Scholarship, FL Chapter of AFS Roger Rottman Scholarship, and travel grants through: UF IFAS, the UF Graduate Student Association, FL Chapter of AFS, and AFS Education Section Skinner Award. I thank my advisor, Dr. Michael Allen, and other graduate committee members, Dr. Debra Murie, Dr. Tom Frazer, Dr. Craig Osenberg, and Dr. Ramon Littell for their service. I especially thank Dr. Allen for his high expectations and efforts to do everything he could do to benefit my student experiences. My research would not have been possible without the assistance of the following FWC cooperators: John Benton, Rich Cailteaux, Jim Estes, Don Fox , Beacham Furse, Steve Gornak, Jay Holder, Bill Johnson, Earl Lundy, Charlie Mesing, Wes Porak, and Andy Strickland. University of Florida students and staff: C. Barrientos, Mo Bennett, G. Binion, T. Bonvechio, P. Cooney, J. Dotson, D. Dutterer, P. Hall, G. Kaufman, V. Maceina, V. Politano, and N. Trippel conducted field sampling, laboratory sample and data processing. I owe tremendous thanks to my academic mentors: Dr. Micheal Allen, Dr. Michael Hansen, and Dr. Richard Noble and greatly appreciate the willingness of Dr. Carl Walters to share his time to assist with my dissertation work. I also thank Dr. Chuck Cichra, Dr. Karl Havens, Mark Hoyer, and Dr. Bill Pine for enhancing my education. Most importantly I thank Kristin and our family for their love and support during this process. I appreciate Kate Lazar’s friendship to my wife and willingness to entertain Kristin on all the weekends and nights that I was working. I also thank Trinity United Methodist Church for helping me keep my life prioritized. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS page LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................6 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................7 ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................10 2 EXPLORING THE GENERALITY OF RECRUITMENT HYPOTHESES FOR LARGEMOUTH BASS ALONG A LATITUDINAL GRADIENT OF FLORIDA LAKES ...................................................................................................................................12 Methods ..................................................................................................................................14 Results.....................................................................................................................................19 Discussion...............................................................................................................................23 3 SEPARATING GENETIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCES ON TEMPORAL SPAWNING DISTRIBUTIONS OF LARGEMOUTH BASS (Micropterus salmoides) .........................................................................................................40 Methods ..................................................................................................................................43 Results.....................................................................................................................................46 Discussion...............................................................................................................................48 4 SIMULATED INFLUENCES OF HATCHING DATE SPECIFIC SURVIVAL ON RECRUITMENT OF LARGEMOUTH BASS......................................................................61 Methods ..................................................................................................................................62 Results.....................................................................................................................................69 Discussion...............................................................................................................................73 5 SYNTHESIS AND FUTURE RESEARCH...........................................................................88 Age-0 Largemouth Bass Recruitment ....................................................................................88 Fisheries Management............................................................................................................89 Future Research ......................................................................................................................90 APPENDIX A DIET COMPOSITION MATRICES FOR ECOPATH MODELS........................................93 B SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS RESULTS FOR ECOPATH MODELS ...................................98 REFERENCE LIST .....................................................................................................................108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................................121 5 LIST OF TABLES Table page 2-1 Physical and chemical characteristics of 6 Florida study lakes and genetic characteristics of their largemouth bass populations............................................................30 2-2 Dates corresponding to hatching periods, median hatch dates, and water temperatures (°C) at corresponding median hatch dates for the 2003 and 2004 largemouth bass year classes at 6 Florida study lakes ............................................................................................31 2-3 Mean daily growth rate, and standard deviation (SD) for age-0 largemouth bass collected in block nets during spring and summer of each year ..........................................32 2-4 Analysis of variance results for survival comparisons among hatching periods and regions of Florida .................................................................................................................33 3-1 Earliest, median, and latest hatch dates of Florida (Lake Okeechobee fish) and intergrade (Lake Seminole fish) largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides) translocated to experimental ponds at Gainesville, Florida in 2004 and corresponding water temperatures .........................................................................................................................56 4-1 Species composition of non-largemouth bass fish groups....................................................81 4-2 Ecopath inputs for a north Florida eutrophic lake based on data from Lakes Seminole and Talquin collected in 2003 and 2004 ..............................................................................82 4-3 Ecopath inputs for a south Florida eutrophic lake based on data from Lakes Istokpoga and Okeechobee collected in 2003 and 2004 .......................................................................83 4-4 Ecopath estimates of diet niche overlap among age-0 largemouth bass hatching sub- cohorts ..................................................................................................................................84 A-1 Diet composition inputs for north region Ecopath model ...................................................94 A-2 Diet composition inputs for south region Ecopath model ...................................................96 B-1 Sensitivity analysis for north region Ecopath model ...........................................................99 B-2 Sensitivity analysis for south region Ecopath model.........................................................103 6 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2-1 Selected north region, central region, and south region study lakes ....................................34 2-2 Relative frequency distributions of age-0 largemouth bass hatching at north, central, and south study lakes in 2003 ..............................................................................................35 2-3 Relative frequency distributions of age-0 largemouth bass hatching at north, central, and south study lakes in 2004 ..............................................................................................36 2-4 Relationship between mean daily growth rates and average temperatures from the 40- day period following the median hatch date for early, middle, and late hatching periods from 6 Florida lakes during 2003 and 2004 ............................................................37 2-5 Length frequency distributions for 2003 fall and spring (~age-1) samples of age-0 largemouth bass collected by electrofishing at north, central, and south study lakes..........38 2-6 Length frequency distributions for 2004 fall and spring (~age-1) samples of age-0 largemouth bass collected by electrofishing at north, central, and south study lakes..........39 3-1 Locations and latitudes for Lake Seminole, Lake Okeechobee and Gainesville, Florida, USA......................................................................................................................................57