Abstract
The objective of the study was to test the hypothesis that lake trout populations change in relation to cisco, lake whitefish, round whitefish and burbot populations in lakes in the Algonquin Highlands region of Ontario. Lake trout population change is greatest where cisco and lake whitefish are present. Lake trout populations in lakes without either coregonine tend to have small adults and many juveniles. Where cisco or lake whitefish are present, adult lake trout are large, juvenile abundance is low, and the stock-recruit relationship appears to be uncoupled likely due to a larval bottleneck. Lake trout populations in these lakes may be sensitive to overfishing and recruitment failure. Lake trout populations do not appear to change in relation to round whitefish. There appears to be an indirect positive change on juvenile lake trout abundance through reductions in the density of benthic coregonines in the presence of large, hypolimnetic burbot.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Tony Gentile, Fiona McGuiness and the summer students who collected and worked up the data. I also thank David Bornholdt, David Bunnell, Sandra Morrison, Nigel Lester, Stephen Riley, Jaci Savino, Christine Schmuckal and Kevin Whalen for reviewing the manuscript. This article is Contribution 1442 of the USGS Great Lakes Science Center.
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Carl, L.M. Lake trout demographics in relation to burbot and coregonine populations in the Algonquin Highlands, Ontario. Environ Biol Fish 83, 127–138 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-007-9305-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-007-9305-7