2024/04/06 by Richard T. Kraus, John Markham, Jake M. Robinson +6 · 1 voice
Environmental Science · #Fish Ecology and Management Studies #Hydrology and Sediment Transport Processes #Ecology and biodiversity studies
paper · doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2024.102343
openalex publication_date 2024/04/06 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Cisco (Coregonus artedi) have been extirpated from Lake Erie in North America since the 1960s, but they once supported one of the largest Laurentian Great Lakes fisheries. Numerous potential impediments to rehabilitation have been identified, including summer habitat refugia and predation. We used acoustic telemetry to investigate the thermal habitat use and survival of hatchery-reared adult cisco in Lake Erie. Fish were experimentally released (n = 50 per site) offshore at Dunkirk, New York, in the eastern basin and Huron, Ohio, in the central basin. Cisco in both basins found suitable summer oxythermal habitat in the metalimnion, suggesting that coldwater habitat availability is likely not an impediment for reestablishment. However, track end dates or predation dates were distributed across only four months with the last detection at 155 days. Predation sensors combined with temperature values during digestion indicated different potential predators: lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) for the Dunkirk group and walleye (Sander vitreus) for the Huron group. Additionally, digestion temperatures of two tags indicated bird predation was also important, likely underestimated and suggested substantial use of the epilimnion by tagged fish. The results highlight the need for additional studies to address stocking optimization questions in support of future reintroduction experiments and related cisco conservation efforts.