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Degree

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, Biological Sciences, 2011.

Abstract

Upground reservoirs exist primarily as drinking water storage but also are managed as a fishery and important sportfish species are stocked to provide fishing opportunities to anglers. In Northwest Ohio, these systems are common, and improving productivity of reservoirs as a fishery is an important goal for management agencies. One of the primary species is yellow perch (Perca flavescens) and among the upground reservoirs there are varying levels of success for yellow perch fisheries. A large scale investigation of these systems was undertaken in order to understand what is influencing the success of yellow perch in the systems. These variables were physical, chemical, or biological in nature, reflecting all the potential ways the environment and habitat could impact yellow perch in the reservoirs. The data was analyzed using classification and regression trees, along with principal components analysis (PCA), to determine which variables were important, by seeing which variables separate reservoirs with high abundances of yellow perch from those reservoirs with low abundances of yellow perch. Percentage of submerged macrophytes (to provide cover for juvenile yellow perch) was the most important variable. Higher levels of submerged macrophytes in general lead to higher abundances of yellow perch in the reservoirs. Existing reservoirs could be improved for yellow perch by adding structures that promote the growth of vegetation, and new reservoirs being constructed that may be targeted for yellow perch stocking could have aspects such as fish shelves added to create more vegetative cover for yellow perch.

Subject Headings

Aquatic Sciences; Biology; Ecology; Freshwater Ecology; Limnology; Natural Resource Management

Keywords

yellow perch; reservoir; classification; littoral vegetation; submerged macrophytes; Sander; stocking; regression tree

Committee / Advisors

Jeffrey Miner, PhD (Advisor)
Peter Gorsevski, PhD (Committee Member)
Rex Lowe, PhD (Committee Member)

Pages

50p.

Document number: bgsu1291841439
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1291841439

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