Fish distribution patterns and habitat availability in lakes Moreno Este and Moreno Oeste, Patagonia, Argentina

Rechencq, Magali
Vigliano, Pablo Horacio
Macchi, Patricio Jorge
Lippolt, Gustavo Enrique

Open link

Publication date

November 2014

DOI

10.1016/j.limno.2014.09.003

Publisher

Elsevier BV

ISSN

0075-9511

Journal

Limnologica

Citation count (estimate)

Abstract

Andean Patagonian lakes are ultraoligotrophic and deep, have simple food webs and low fish diversity and abundance. In this work the distributional abundance data of fish was studied in two interconnected Andean Patagonian lakes with varying proportions of contrasting habitat types. Hydroacoustic data (120 kHz) were used to analyze fish abundance and habitat use during the mixis and stratification periods. Three types of habitat (near shore, surface pelagic and deep pelagic) and two groups of fish, based on size (Big Fish >12 cm total length and Fish Larvae and Small Fish <12 cm total length) were defined. The distribution of both fish groups in these lakes revealed differences in habitat use for each lake and period. Fish group abundance w...