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Distribution, Abundance, and Trophic Ecology of Anguilliform Leptocephali in the Northern Gulf of Mexico

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Distribution, Abundance, and Trophic Ecology of Anguilliform Leptocephali in the Northern Gulf of Mexico The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Master's Theses Fall 2019 Distribution, Abundance, and Trophic Ecology of Anguilliform Leptocephali in the Northern Gulf of Mexico Lillian Collins University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses Part of the Marine Biology Commons Recommended Citation Collins, Lillian, "Distribution, Abundance, and Trophic Ecology of Anguilliform Leptocephali in the Northern Gulf of Mexico" (2019). Master's Theses. 687. https://aquila.usm.edu/masters_theses/687 This Masters Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE, AND TROPHIC ECOLOGY OF ANGUILLIFORM LEPTOCEPHALI IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO by Lillian Collins A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School, the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Ocean Science and Engineering at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Approved by: Dr. Frank J. Hernandez, Committee Chair Dr. Kevin S. Dillon Dr. Jesse Filbrun ____________________ ____________________ ____________________ Dr. Frank J. Hernandez Dr. Leila J. Hamdan Dr. Karen S. Coats Committee Chair Associate Director of Dean of the Graduate School School December 2019 COPYRIGHT BY Lillian Collins 2019 Published by the Graduate School ABSTRACT All species of anguilliform eels have pelagic leptocephalus larval stages, which provides a means of monitoring the population dynamics of these otherwise cryptic and hard to study species. The goals of this study were to: 1) describe the distribution and abundance of anguilliform eel leptocephali across the northern Gulf of Mexico, and 2) examine the trophic ecology of leptocephali using stable isotope values of carbon and nitrogen (δ13C and δ15N). A 25-year (1990-2014) ichthyoplankton dataset provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) was used to examine interannual variations in leptocephalus distribution, abundance, and occurrence. Family-level indices of abundance and occurrence were significantly and positively correlated over the time series within season (spring and fall) and gear types (bongo net and neuston net). Ten of the reported twelve eel families known from the Gulf of Mexico were collected during this time series. Decreases in abundance and occurrence for dominant families (Ophichthidae, Congridae, and Muraenidae) were observed during the latter part of the time series. Leptocephalus, zooplankton, and particulate organic matter (POM) samples were collected during the SEAMAP Fall Plankton Survey in 2016 and analyzed for stable isotopes. Variability in the isotope values of leptocephali was driven by variability in baseline POM isotope values. Diet composition analyses indicated leptocephali used POM and small zooplankton as diet sources. Information about leptocephali taxonomic diversity, abundance, distribution, and trophic ecology add to our understanding of their ecological role in the ocean. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee members Dr. Frank Hernandez, Dr. Kevin Dillon, and Dr. Jesse Filbrun for the time they put into teaching me and helping me with this thesis. An additional thanks to Frank for being willing to take on a part-time student and for being patient with me as I navigated how to balance my job and student responsibilities. Thank you to Joanne Lyczkowski-Schultz and the NOAA plankton team. I would also like to thank Glenn Zapfe for assembling leptocephalus data and helping me interpret the SEAMAP database. A special thank you to Denise Drass, Frank, and Eric Haffey for their help with leptocephalus identification, and Carla Culpepper for photographing the leptocephali, and Megan Angelina for collecting samples for me. Thank you to Morgan Frank for all your help processing my stable isotope samples. I would especially like to thank Harriet Perry for always being understanding and supportive of me through this process. I would like to extend my gratitude to everyone I work with in the Crab Lab and CFRD for being so willing to be flexible with their schedules so that I could work on this thesis and for all their support along the way. iii DEDICATION I would like to thank my parents for their support and encouragement of me in every aspect of my life. Thank you to Cam for sticking by me through this whole process, for always being supportive of my dreams, and for encouraging me to better myself. My sincerest gratitude to all my friends who are my biggest cheerleaders. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ........................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 INTERANNUAL VARIABILITY IN DISTRIBUTION, ABUNDANCE, AND OCCURRENCE OF ANGUILLIFORM LEPTOCEPHALI IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Materials and Methods .............................................................................................. 4 1.3 Results and Discussion ............................................................................................. 7 1.3.1 General patterns in leptocephalus distribution and abundance .......................... 7 1.3.2 Family-level distributions, abundance and occurrence ...................................... 9 1.3.3 Long-term trends in leptocephalus abundance and occurrence ....................... 17 CHAPTER 2 – SPACIAL AND TAXONOMIC VARIABILITY IN STABLE ISOTOPE COMPOSITIONS OF ANGUILLIFORM LEPTOCEPHALI IN THE NORTHERN GULF OF MEXICO ......................................................................................................... 42 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 42 2.2 Materials and Methods ............................................................................................ 45 v 2.2.1 Collection of leptocephali, mesozooplankton, and POM ................................ 45 2.2.2 Stable isotope analyses .................................................................................... 46 2.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 49 2.4 Discussion ............................................................................................................... 52 APPENDIX A– Supplemental Figures and Tables .......................................................... 50 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 64 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Leptocephalus totals by family ........................................................................... 1 Table 1.2 Correlations of abundance and occurrence ......................................................... 1 Table 2.1 Leptocephalus identification, total length, and collection station .................... 42 Table 2.2 Mean leptocephalus diet contributions ............................................................. 47 Table A.1 Leptocephalus stable isotope values ................................................................ 56 Table A.2 Zooplankton stable isotope values ................................................................... 57 Table A.3 POM stable isotope values ............................................................................... 60 Table A.4 IsoSource results for each station .................................................................... 61 vii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1.1 Southeast Area Monitoring and Assessment Program (SEAMAP) plankton stations ............................................................................................................................... 1 Figure 1.2 Number of years SEAMAP stations were sampled ........................................... 1 Figure 1.3 Families Anguillidae, Chlopsidae, and Muraenesocidae .................................. 2 Figure 1.4 Families Nemichthyidae and Synaphobranchidae............................................. 1 Figure 1.5 Family Congridae .............................................................................................. 1 Figure 1.6 Family Moringuidae .......................................................................................... 1 Figure 1.7 Family Muraenidae ............................................................................................ 1 Figure 1.8 Family Nettastomatidae ..................................................................................... 1
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