Project
Quantifying the impacts of climate change on growth, survival, recruitment and production to enable sustainable management of yellow perch in Lake Erie
In Lake Erie, previous research showed that an abundant intermediate consumer, yellow perch (Perca flavescens), which supports valuable commercial and recreational fisheries, displayed reduced reproductive success following short, warm winters associated with climate change. We propose to investigate how the dynamics of Lake Erie’s yellow perch population have responded to climate change historically and anticipate how future climate change might impact the fisheries it supports. Given that individual growth, survival, recruitment, and population productivity are fundamental metrics for designing and evaluating effective fisheries management strategies, we will disentangle the impacts of climate factors (e.g., temperature, wind, ice phenology) and other potentially important factors (e.g., harvest, ecosystem productivity, population, competitor and predator densities) on these metrics to help inform fisheries management decision-making. Our specific objectives are to: (1) Quantify historical changes in climate and other factors important to Lake Erie yellow perch growth and recruitment; (2) Estimate the effects of climate change on yellow perch size-at-age, natural mortality rate, and recruitment to the fishery; (3) Quantify the impacts of climate change on fisheries productivity; and (4) Communicate our findings to LEC agencies to facilitate climate-smart decision-making.