{"title":"Long-term trends in abundance and recruitment of Shortnose Sturgeon in the Altamaha River, Georgia","authors":"Maxwell Kleinhans, Adam G. Fox","doi":"10.1002/mcf2.10294","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Objective</h3>\n \n <p>The objective of this study was to estimate the population size and annual recruitment of Shortnose Sturgeon <i>Accipenser brevirostrum</i> in the Altamaha River estuary in Georgia, United States, during an 11-year period. The Shortnose Sturgeon is an endangered fish species that occupies rivers on the east coast of North America. Previous studies have suggested that the Altamaha River supports the largest population of Shortnose Sturgeon in the southern United States; however, the status of the population has not been assessed in 11 years.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Methods</h3>\n \n <p>We used entanglement gears to capture Shortnose Sturgeon in the Altamaha River estuary, marked them, and used an established statistical method (closed-population capture–mark–recapture models) to annually estimate total population size and age-1 recruitment from 2012 to 2022.</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Result</h3>\n \n <p>We were able to estimate the size of age-1 cohorts in 7 of the 11 years of data collection. Point estimates of annual age-1 recruitment varied between 113 and 1021 individuals, and total population size varied between 452 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 116–2277) and 5054 individuals (95% CI: 2155–13,267).</p>\n </section>\n \n <section>\n \n <h3> Conclusion</h3>\n \n <p>Recruitment of age-1 juveniles was variable, suggesting that reproduction success is inconsistent between years in the Altamaha River. The results of this study, in combination with previous work, do not show any clear trends in Altamaha River Shortnose Sturgeon population abundance or recruitment. The population seems to be stable, but in the absence of historical population numbers, it is unclear whether the population should be considered recovered or is stagnated in its recovery.</p>\n </section>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":51257,"journal":{"name":"Marine and Coastal Fisheries","volume":"16 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/mcf2.10294","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Marine and Coastal Fisheries","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mcf2.10294","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"FISHERIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Objective
The objective of this study was to estimate the population size and annual recruitment of Shortnose Sturgeon Accipenser brevirostrum in the Altamaha River estuary in Georgia, United States, during an 11-year period. The Shortnose Sturgeon is an endangered fish species that occupies rivers on the east coast of North America. Previous studies have suggested that the Altamaha River supports the largest population of Shortnose Sturgeon in the southern United States; however, the status of the population has not been assessed in 11 years.
Methods
We used entanglement gears to capture Shortnose Sturgeon in the Altamaha River estuary, marked them, and used an established statistical method (closed-population capture–mark–recapture models) to annually estimate total population size and age-1 recruitment from 2012 to 2022.
Result
We were able to estimate the size of age-1 cohorts in 7 of the 11 years of data collection. Point estimates of annual age-1 recruitment varied between 113 and 1021 individuals, and total population size varied between 452 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 116–2277) and 5054 individuals (95% CI: 2155–13,267).
Conclusion
Recruitment of age-1 juveniles was variable, suggesting that reproduction success is inconsistent between years in the Altamaha River. The results of this study, in combination with previous work, do not show any clear trends in Altamaha River Shortnose Sturgeon population abundance or recruitment. The population seems to be stable, but in the absence of historical population numbers, it is unclear whether the population should be considered recovered or is stagnated in its recovery.
期刊介绍:
Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science publishes original and innovative research that synthesizes information on biological organization across spatial and temporal scales to promote ecologically sound fisheries science and management. This open-access, online journal published by the American Fisheries Society provides an international venue for studies of marine, coastal, and estuarine fisheries, with emphasis on species'' performance and responses to perturbations in their environment, and promotes the development of ecosystem-based fisheries science and management.