Leveraging Multi-Species and Multi-Year Telemetry Datasets to Examine Metrics of Movement and Phenology of Chesapeake Bay Fishes.

Livernois, Mariah¹, Matthew B. Ogburn², Henry D. Legett², Kimberly D. Richie², Nathan B. Furey¹, ¹University of New Hampshire, Department of Biological Sciences, Durham, NH, ²Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, MD

Estuaries support diverse fish assemblages with a variety of life histories, including resident species who rely on estuarine habitats year-round and migratory species whose use of estuaries is transient. Examining the movements of multiple species within estuarine landscapes allows for identification of shared critical habitats and the timing and duration of estuary use, which can be used to assess strategies for holistic ecosystem management. Aquatic animal movement tracking is often limited spatiotemporally due to challenges such as high costs and labor demand, but the development of collaborative telemetry networks has increased the scale at which these movements can be monitored. This study leveraged data from an acoustic telemetry network along the East coast of the United States to assess local and migratory movements of seven species of fish and one invertebrate in the Chesapeake Bay (blue catfish, horseshoe crabs, common carp, alewife, striped bass, cownose rays, smooth dogfish, and dusky sharks). Between 2013 and 2022, 15 to 82 individuals of each species were tagged with acoustic transmitters, which were detected >3.5 million times on receivers from Florida to Maine. With a focus on the Chesapeake Bay, metrics of movement and phenology were calculated for each species including home range size, movement rates, entry/exit timing, and regional residency indices. Cross-species comparisons of each metric were also conducted that consider differences in animal behavior and study design. Ultimately, our results highlight the utility of acoustic telemetry networks for conducting large-scale multi-species assessments of animal movement and habitat use.