Project Overview

The Winter Fish Ecology project was carried out by Benjamin Block as part of his Master's Thesis research. This repository through UVM FEMC will make raw data, supporting the research and subsequent publications, publicly available. In addition to raw data, we have provided a draft of our manuscript to describe how the data were collected, processed, and analyzed. A README file has also been included to provide descriptions of each dataset.

Objectives

The seasonal energy dynamics of temperate fishes will likely be affected by climate change, especially during the winter; however, few studies have focused on this season. Fishes may be more active in winter than previously thought, thus, an inquiry into the energetic contributions of winter foraging to the annual growth of fishes is needed given imminent changes in winter conditions. We used stomach content data, total lipid analyses, and bioenergetics modeling to assess the effects of winter foraging on three species in Lake Champlain, Vermont, USA. We compared species in two thermal guilds, the cool-water species yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and two warm-water species, pumpkinseed (Lepomis gibbosus) and bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus). The data suggest that winter energy dynamics likely depend on the thermal preference of individual fish species. Our results indicate that cool-water species can forage in all seasons whereas warm-water species forage only in the open-water seasons.

Dataset Availability

Downloadable: 5 datasets

Tags

Status - Completed

Start date: 2017-09-01

End date: 2020-04-15

Study Area

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