Fish Picky About Wetlands

Ann Arbor, MI — Human impacts on coastal wetlands in the Great Lakes have a lot to do with the kind of fish species that are living there.

This multiyear study collected fish and water quality data from wetlands in all five Great Lakes. The data was used to develop a test that uses the type of fish captured in a wetland to assess the health of the wetland and its habitat.

"The fish species you find in Great Lakes marshes depends on how clean the water is," says Titus Seilheimer, a former graduate student at McMaster University and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Oklahoma State University.

"Wetlands are important habitats for Great Lakes fishes, especially as places for laying eggs and for young fish to grow to maturity. Finding a fast way to measure the condition of the wetland is important for wetland management, especially with the rapid population growth occurring in parts of the Great Lakes," explained Seilheimer.

"We hope that this test is adopted by conservation groups and government agencies as a way to compare wetlands and track changes through time," he added.

The researchers investigated wetlands with different amounts of human impact and used the relationship between water quality and fish occurrence to modify the Wetland Fish Index for use throughout the Great Lakes. Some fish species are only found in wetlands with few human impacts, some species are found in most wetlands, and others are typically found in the most disturbed wetlands.

Because the scientists collected data from wetlands in many parts of the Great Lakes with a variety of impacts, the index should be successfully used in the Great Lakes and in other ecosystems.

Original Publication Information

Results of this study "Application of the Wetland Fish Index to Northern Great Lakes Marshes with Emphasis on Georgian Bay Coastal Wetlands," are reported by Titus S. Seilheimer and Patricia Chow-Fraser in the latest issue (Volume 33, SI3, pp. 154-171) of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by the International Association for Great Lakes Research, 2007.

Contacts

For more information about the study, contact Titus Seilheimer, Oklahoma Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078; titus.seilheimer@gmail.com, (405) 744-5768.

For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; editor@iaglr.org; (608) 692-1076.

Links

Since 1967, IAGLR has served as the focal point for compiling and disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world and their watersheds. In part, IAGLR communicates this knowledge through publication of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, available to members in print and electronic form. A searchable archive of the journal is available online and includes the abstracts of articles from the journal's inception in 1975 through the most recent issue. In addition, complete articles are available to members who have signed up for an electronic subscription.