Space use and residency patterns of largemouth bass relative to a freshwater protected area

“To quantify the drivers of fish residency in relation to the FPA, daily fish positions assigned using LOCF were modelled using random forest (RF) algorithms (Breiman 2001).”

“Declines in freshwater biodiversity highlight the need for more effective conservation strategies to safeguard exploited species from over harvest as well as other adverse human-use impacts (Reid et al. 2019; Tickner et al. 2020).”

“RF uses classification or regression trees to repeatedly create binary partitions in the data based on the predictors to optimize prediction of the response (Breiman et al. 1984; De’ath and Fabricius 2000).”

“Declines in freshwater biodiversity highlight the need for more effective conservation strategies to safeguard exploited species from over harvest as well as other adverse human-use impacts (Reid et al. 2019; Tickner et al. 2020).”

“…package (Liaw and Wiener 2002), cross-validated model accuracy was assessed using the ‘caret’ package (Kuhn et al. 2019), predictor interaction importance was calculated with the ‘iml’ package (Molnar et al. 2018) and partial dependencies were calculated using the ‘pdp’ package (Greenwell 2017).”

“…package (Liaw and Wiener 2002), cross-validated model accuracy was assessed using the ‘caret’ package (Kuhn et al. 2019), predictor interaction importance was calculated with the ‘iml’ package (Molnar et al. 2018) and partial dependencies were calculated using the ‘pdp’ package (Greenwell 2017).”

“Similar to marine protected areas (MPAs), the objectives of FPAs are often to protect biodiversity within entire ecosystems; however, resource-based FPAs that target a single species for protection are common (Saunders et al. 2002; Zolderdo et al. 2019).”

“These factors have resulted in mixed-resource management outcomes and, as a consequence, have created a paucity in the use of FPAs in resource regulation (Abell et al. 2007; Acreman et al. 2020).”

“More specifically, a larger body size enables a higher storage capacity for endogenous energy reserves (i.e. lipids; Cargnelli and Gross 1997) coupled with a lower size-specific metabolic rate (Norin and Clark 2015).”

“…protected area in Big Rideau Lake) based on detections at stationary acoustic receiver locations be located in the discrete ecosystem segment where they were last detected until they are subsequently detected in another segment (e.g. Struthers et al. 2017; Kessel et al. 2014; Colborne et al. 2019).”

“Management actions in the form of freshwater protected areas (FPAs), which restrict/prohibit human-use activities within a designated area, have been garnering attention as a potential strategy to benefit freshwater biodiversity (Ashley et al. 2003; Abell et al. 2007; Cooke et al. 2023).”

“These factors have resulted in mixed-resource management outcomes and, as a consequence, have created a paucity in the use of FPAs in resource regulation (Abell et al. 2007; Acreman et al. 2020).”

“Unlike protected areas in the marine environment, FPAs are often small in size, seasonal and/or obscurely placed within lakes and rivers (Hermoso et al. 2016) and have, in some cases, been installed without consideration of the movement behaviours of the target fish species to be protected.”

“Passive acoustic telemetry utilizes a network of submerged autonomous receivers that record the presence of animals fitted with an acoustic transmitter (Donaldson et al. 2014).”

“…techniques have been commonly used to investigate migration patterns and site fidelity of fishes within, and adjacent to, MPAs, which has provided vital information for guiding the development of certain MPAs to maximize conservation benefits (Knip et al. 2012; Lea et al. 2016; Reyier et al. 2020).”

“Largemouth bass detections were then filtered to remove any false detections prior to analysis (Simpfendorfer et al. 2015) including those that occurred prior to tag deployment, repeated detections that occurred within less than the minimum tag transmission delay and single detections that occurred…”

“Telemetry techniques have been commonly used to investigate migration patterns and site fidelity of fishes within, and adjacent to, MPAs, which has provided vital information for guiding the development of certain MPAs to maximize conservation benefits (Knip et al. 2012; Lea et al. 2016; Reyier et…”

“Detections were then visually examined to assess whether any mortalities or tag shedding occurred, which results in repeated detections of an individual tag at an individual receiver over extended periods of time, without any subsequent detections at other receivers (Klinard and Matley 2020).”

“In the BRL FPA, dense macrophyte growth continues into the summer and early autumn, creating highly complex habitat structure (Zolderdo et al. 2019), which is a key factor known to reduce home-range size in largemouth bass (Fish and Savitz 1983; Ahrenstorff et al. 2009).”

“Furthermore, larger fish are able to engage in reproductive activities (i.e. parental care behaviours) longer due to their increased energy reserve capacity (Cooke et al. 2006; Suski and Ridgway 2007).”

“Natural population structuring relies on the senescence of older individuals to create niche space for younger, more fit individuals (Metcalfe 2006).”

“Diurnal movement patterns have also been observed in largemouth bass, where telemetered fish have been observed to occupy deeper littoral habitats during daylight hours, and move into shallower areas during low-light conditions (Demers et al. 1996; Hanson et al. 2007).”

“Furthermore, larger fish are able to engage in reproductive activities (i.e. parental care behaviours) longer due to their increased energy reserve capacity (Cooke et al. 2006; Suski and Ridgway 2007).”

“As water temperatures cool, largemouth bass transition to their overwintering habitat, which is offshore and deep water (< 10 m in depth) in structure (Hanson et al. 2008; Hasler et al. 2009).”

“Collectively, these results indicate some degree of protective capacity enabling FPA populations to maintain a more natural state relative to unprotected individuals outside of the FPA that have been influenced by humans through harvest and exploitation (Hessenauer et al. 2015; Louison et al. 2017).”

“In spring, the early and accelerated macrophyte growth within shallow littoral habitats attracts various prey resources which, in turn, attracts largemouth bass due to increased foraging opportunities (Massicotte et al. 2015).”

“Collectively, these results indicate some degree of protective capacity enabling FPA populations to maintain a more natural state relative to unprotected individuals outside of the FPA that have been influenced by humans through harvest and exploitation (Hessenauer et al. 2015; Louison et al. 2017).”

“Management actions in the form of freshwater protected areas (FPAs), which restrict/prohibit human-use activities within a designated area, have been garnering attention as a potential strategy to benefit freshwater biodiversity (Ashley et al. 2003; Abell et al. 2007; Cooke et al. 2023).”

“Largemouth bass, like many pota-dromous species, are known to undergo seasonal movements at various temporal and spatial scales to access favourable habitat for feeding, reproduction and refuge (Fish and Savitz 1983; Waters and Noble 2004; Hanson et al. 2008).”

“As water temperatures cool, largemouth bass transition to their overwintering habitat, which is offshore and deep water (< 10 m in depth) in structure (Hanson et al. 2008; Hasler et al. 2009).”

“This behaviour closely corresponds to previously identified seasonal movement patterns in lar-gemouth bass (Carlson 1992; Hanson et al. 2008).”

“…and then incrementally increasing the current strength until tetany was observed and then returning to one setting lower, which induced a safe electro-anaesthesia (i.e. muscle relaxation, normal ventilation, loss of equilibrium and reduced reactivity; see Abrams et al. 2018 for more detail).”

“At present, similar information for FPAs is lacking (Loury et al. 2018).”

“Despite providing incomplete coverage of large-mouth bass home ranges, the BRL FPA must still provide some degree of population-level protection, as previous research has observed greater abundance and biomass of largemouth bass within the FPA borders (Zolderdo et al. 2019).”

“…the FPAs are believed to exhibit basal phenotypes that have not been influenced by fisheries-induced selection pressure, such as high-performance metabolic phenotypes, increased reproductive effort and reduced stress responsiveness (Cooke et al. 2017; Twardek et al. 2017; Zolderdo et al. 2023).”

“This enables larger individuals to initiate spawning earlier in the season relative to smaller individuals (Iguchi et al. 2004).”

“…the FPAs are believed to exhibit basal phenotypes that have not been influenced by fisheries-induced selection pressure, such as high-performance metabolic phenotypes, increased reproductive effort and reduced stress responsiveness (Cooke et al. 2017; Twardek et al. 2017; Zolderdo et al. 2023).”

“…protected area in Big Rideau Lake) based on detections at stationary acoustic receiver locations be located in the discrete ecosystem segment where they were last detected until they are subsequently detected in another segment (e.g. Struthers et al. 2017; Kessel et al. 2014; Colborne et al. 2019).”

“However, the effectiveness and utility of FPAs are still largely debated (Abell et al. 2007; Hedges et al. 2010).”

“Previous telemetry-based research has identified a negative correlation between habitat residency rates of largemouth bass and both water temperature and littoral zone water depth (Roy et al. 2018).”

“…fact that a closed fishing season for largemouth bass occurs during the reproductive life-history period across all of the Rideau waterway lakes (i.e. 15 December–third Saturday in June), pre-season angling still occurs and has been increasing in prevalence since the 1990s (Philipp et al. 2023).”

“Previous research has shown that largemouth bass populations consolidate within select overwintering areas, and can travel significant distances (i.e. > 5 km) to occupy these locations (Carlson 1992; Raibley et al. 1997; Hasler et al. 2007).”

“Telemetry techniques have been commonly used to investigate migration patterns and site fidelity of fishes within, and adjacent to, MPAs, which has provided vital information for guiding the development of certain MPAs to maximize conservation benefits (Knip et al. 2012; Lea et al. 2016; Reyier et…”

“Furthermore, shallow vegetated habitat provides ideal conditions to support offspring development and growth (Kramer and Smith 1962; Jennings 1997).”

“This would enable larger fish to exit the over-wintering period in better condition and make seasonal movements into the shallow littoral FPA habitat sooner relative to smaller individuals (Hanson et al. 2008; Mid-wood et al. 2017).”

“2; Zolderdo et al. 2024).”