Using Nearshore Fish Communities to Evaluate Eutrophication Impact in Temperate Estuaries

Using fishes as indicators of estuarine degradation is informative in long-term monitoring programs. Beach seine hauls were used in four estuaries that differed in their trophic and tidal status. The study found that inner, middle, and outer estuarine nearshore fish communities differed significantly at from all estuaries, for all sampling times. To reduce the effects of within-estuary variability, between-estuary differences were examined separately for inner, middle, and outer estuarine areas. These analyses revealed differences in north-south and trophic status in communities between estuaries. The north-south differences were characterized by more benthic fishes, such as mummichogs and fourspine stickleback in the microtidal northern estuaries and proportionally more pelagic fishes, such as Atlantic silversides and river herring in the mesotidal estuaries. In both multivariate and univariate analyses, mummichogs were also featured as being most abundant in the more eutrophic estuaries. The distance-based redundancy analysis showed that bare sediment coverage was the strongest correlate of the north-south differences, while the Ulva to Zostera plant gradient was more influential in predicting eutrophication impacts on communities in the inner and middle estuary.