MATOS - Mid-Atlantic Acoustic Telemetry Observation System

Project Title: Test of The Thermal Niche-Oxygen Squeeze Hypothesis for Chesapeake Bay Striped Bass

MATOS Project Code: PAXSB08

Data Type: Data

Project Duration: November 2007 - December 2009

Project Description: To bring ecosystem considerations into the current Chesapeake Bay Program striped bass FMP will require improved understanding and benchmarks for the role of water quality and habitat in influencing striped bass production. Here, we propose to better understand the constraints on resident Chesapeake Bay striped bass production under continued and perhaps worsening conditions of thermal and hypoxic stress. A widely held, but unsubstantiated view of Chesapeake Bay striped bass is that eutrophication and related increased incidence of hypoxia during summer has reduced growth and condition, and occasionally resulted in fish kills. In this study, we will directly evaluate Coutant’s thermal niche-oxygen squeeze hypothesis in the Patuxent River estuary. We develop bioenergetic benchmarks of resident striped bass growth as habitat indicators relevant to management of striped bass and other living resources.

Objectives:

Provide the Chesapeake Bay NOAA Office a model of habitat suitability based upon temperature/DO
Develop habitat preference model and contrast this with bioenergetic predictions and observed growth
Evaluate the thermal niche-oxygen squeeze hypothesis using acoustic telemetry.

Principal Investigator:	David Secor (University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science)
Email:	secor@umces.edu

Point of Contact:	Mike O'Brien
Email:	obrien@umces.edu

Collaborators:

Alexei Sharov (Maryland Department of Natural Resources)
Richard Kraus (USGS, Lake Erie Biological Station)

Participating Organizations:

Maryland Department of Natural Resources
George Mason University
University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

Funding:

NOAA Chesapeake Bay Office

UMCES Striped Bass Thermal Squeeze