Review of fish diversity in the Lake Huron basin

• Published in: Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management
• Main Authors: Roseman, Edward F., Schaeffer, Jeffrey S., Steen, Paul J.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Michigan State University Press 2009
• Subjects: Arctic grayling
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14634980802710325; https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/msup/aehm/article-pdf/12/1/11/1446909/11roseman.pdf

Lake Huron has a rich aquatic habitat diversity that includes shallow embayments, numerous tributaries, shallow mid-lake reef complexes, archipelagos, and profundal regions. These habitats provide support for warm, cool, and cold water fish communities. Diversity of fishes in Lake Huron reflects post-glaciation colonization events, current climate conditions, accidental and intentional introductions of non-indigenous species, and extinctions. Most extinction events have been largely associated with habitat alterations, exploitation of fisheries, and interactions with non-indigenous species. The most recent historical survey of extirpated and imperiled species conducted in the late 1970s identified 79 fish species in Lake Huron proper and about 50 additional species in tributaries. Of those 129 species, 20 are now considered extirpated or imperiled. Extirpated species include Arctic grayling, paddlefish, weed shiner, deepwater cisco, blackfin cisco, shortnose cisco, and kiyi. Six species have declined appreciably due to loss of clear-water stream habitat: the river redhorse, river darter, black redhorse, pugnose shiner, lake chubsucker, redside dace, eastern sand darter, and channel darter. While numerous agencies, universities, and other organizations routinely monitor nearshore and offshore fish distribution and abundance, there is a need for more rigorous examination of the distribution and abundance of less-common species to better understand their ecology. This information is critical to the development of management plans aimed at ecosystem remediation and restoration.