SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Digital Commons @ ESF Dissertations and Theses Spring 4-19-2019 Fish Assemblage Succession Within a Recovering Urban Lake Gregory Kronisch [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/etds Part of the Environmental Health and Protection Commons Recommended Citation Kronisch, Gregory, "Fish Assemblage Succession Within a Recovering Urban Lake" (2019). Dissertations and Theses. 68. https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/etds/68 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ ESF. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ ESF. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. FISH ASSEMBLAGE SUCCESSION WITHIN A RECOVERING URBAN LAKE by Gregory R. Kronisch A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements or the Master of Science Degree State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, New York April 2019 Department of Environmental and Forest Biology Approved by: Neil Ringler, Major Professor Susan Anagnost, Examining Committee Melissa Fierke, Department Chair S. Scott Shannon, Dean, The Graduate School ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my steering committee: Dr. Donald Stewart, Dr. Stephanie Johnson, and Danielle Hurley, for their time and expertise. I am especially grateful to my major professor, Dr. Neil Ringler, for his support and guidance throughout my graduate program. I would like to give a special thank you to the Onondaga Lake field crews, particularly the 2017 and 2018 cohorts: Erik Hazelton, Deb Hummel, Zach Davis, Ryan Shaw, Sean Korbas, Michaela Kenward, Jane Van Vessem, Carrick Palmer, Joe Sullivan, and Jacob Wojcik. The long- term monitoring of Onondaga Lake would not have been possible without their countless hours of work. Research on Onondaga Lake has been supported by Honeywell International, Incorporated and Parsons Corporation, with significant guidance by Mark Arrigo, Anne Burnham, Jesse Carr, and Matt McDonough. The support of my graduate colleagues has been invaluable; I owe Alex Kua, Ben Gallo, John Zeiger and Kate Abbott for helping to preserve my sanity. Lastly, I’d like to thank my parents for their encouragement and enthusiasm, even when they were not sure what I was talking about. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................ iv LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... v LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... vi ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................... vii PREFACE ........................................................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 5 METHODS ................................................................................................................................................... 10 System Description................................................................................................................................... 10 Site Selection ............................................................................................................................................ 12 Field Data Collection ................................................................................................................................ 12 Environmental Data Sources.................................................................................................................... 17 Changes in Richness and Diversity Over Time.......................................................................................... 19 North and South Basin Comparisons ....................................................................................................... 21 Multivariate Analysis of Factors Influencing Fish Assemblages .............................................................. 21 RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 22 Changes in Richness and Diversity Over Time.......................................................................................... 22 North and South Basin Comparisons ....................................................................................................... 28 Multivariate Analysis of Factors Influencing Fish Assemblages .............................................................. 31 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................................ 36 Overarching Trends in the Onondaga Lake Fish Assemblage .................................................................. 36 Mechanisms of Ecological Change ........................................................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 41 The Future of Onondaga Lake.................................................................................................................. 41 Lake Management Implications .............................................................................................................. 42 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 43 CURRICULUM VITA ..................................................................................................................................... 64 iii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Condensed Timeline of Human Impacts on Onondaga Lake ............................................ 4 Table 2. Trapnet locations sampled per study year (2008-2018). Some sites were inaccessible during the dredging and capping operation. ................................................................................ 13 Table 3. Gillnet locations sampled per study year (2008-2018). Some sites were inaccessible during the dredging and capping operation ................................................................................. 14 Table 4. Environmental data, units, and sources for multivariate analyses................................. 18 Table 5. Fit of environmental variables to the nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) analysis of fish assemblage data ................................................................................................... 33 Table 6. Permutational analyses of variance (PERMANOVAs) analyzing the effect of factors Year and Basin for the nearshore and offshore assemblages based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarties of catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) ......................................................................................................... 34 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Location of Onondaga Lake and Syracuse within the Oswego River system, a tributary to Lake Ontario ............................................................................................................................. 11 Figure 2 Trap net and gillnet sampling locations on Onondaga Lake 2008-2018 ....................... 16 Figure 3. Linear regressions expected richness and Shannon diversity vs. year for nearshore fish surveys .......................................................................................................................................... 23 Figure 4. Stacked bar chart for the Onondaga Lake nearshore assemblage composition per year (2008-2018) ................................................................................................................................... 24 Figure 5. Linear regressions of expected richness and Shannon diversity vs. year for offshore fish surveys .......................................................................................................................................... 26 Figure 6. Stacked bar chart for the Onondaga Lake offshore assemblage composition per year (2008-2018) ................................................................................................................................... 27 Figure 7. Nearshore expected richness, Shannon diversity, and species compositions for north and south basins of Onondaga Lake ............................................................................................. 29 Figure 8. Offshore expected richness, Shannon diversity, and species compositions for north and south basins of Onondaga Lake. ............................................................................................ 30 Figure 9. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination of nearshore samples aggregated by year and basin ............................................................................................................................... 32 Figure 10. Non-metric multidimensional