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- Title
Movement patterns of American eels ( Anguilla rostrata) between salt- and freshwater in a coastal watershed, based on otolith microchemistry.
- Authors
Lamson, Heather M.; Jen-Chieh Shiao; Iizuka, Yoshiyuki; Wann-Nian Tzeng; Cairns, David K.
- Abstract
Otolith strontium:calcium ratios were used to trace lifetime movements of American eels ( Anguilla rostrata) captured in salt-water bays and adjoining freshwater ponds in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Eels were classified into migratory contingents based on their movement patterns. A pond with a pool-and-weir salmonid fishway and a pond drained by a low-gradient channel contained eels that had entered freshwater at all ages, but a pond with a 2.2 m vertical spillway contained only eels that had entered freshwater in the elver year. Salt-water residents were the dominant migratory contingent in salt-water bays (85% of 39), which overturns the paradigm of obligate catadromy for this species. Freshwater residency was the sole pattern found in the pond with the vertical spillway (100% of 12) and the majority contingent in the pond with the low-gradient channel (54% of 24). Inter-habitat shifting was the dominant migratory contingent in eels sampled from the pond with the pool-and-weir fishway (85% of 20). Resident eels were established in salt- and freshwater habitats by the year after their arrival in continental waters. Eels that shifted between habitats increased their rate of inter-habitat shifting with age. The high degree of plasticity in habitat use found in this study is consistent with worldwide Anguillid patterns as revealed by Sr:Ca.
- Subjects
PRINCE Edward Island; CANADA; AMERICAN eel; ANGUILLA (Fish); OTOLITHS; STRONTIUM; CALCIUM; EELS; ANGUILLA japonica; AQUATIC habitats
- Publication
Marine Biology, 2006, Vol 149, Issue 6, p1567
- ISSN
0025-3162
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s00227-006-0308-2