VIMS study shows “dead zone” impacts (Chesapeake) Bay fishes
http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/buchheister_fish_hypoxia.php[font face=Serif][font size=5]VIMS study shows dead zone impacts Bay fishes[/font]
by David Malmquist | July 8, 2013
[font size=4]Low oxygen levels reduce diversity and catch rates of near-bottom species [/font]
[font size=3]A 10-year study of Chesapeake Bay fishes by researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science provides the first quantitative evidence on a bay-wide scale that
low-oxygen
dead zones are impacting the distribution and abundance of demersal fishesthose that live and feed near the Bay bottom.
The affected specieswhich include Atlantic croaker, white perch, spot, striped bass, and summer flounderare a key part of the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem and support important commercial and recreational fisheries.
The study, published in a
recent issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series, was authored by Andre Buchheister, a Ph.D. student in William & Marys School of Marine Science at VIMS, along with VIMS colleagues Chris Bonzek, Jim Gartland, and Dr. Rob Latour.
All four authors are involved in VIMS
Chesapeake Bay Multi-Species Monitoring and Assessment Program (ChesMMAP), an ongoing effort to track and understand interactions between and among fishes and other marine life within the Bay ecosystem.
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