Evaluating nursery habitats using the otolith as a natural tag

All living things require a safe place during their beginning stages of life. Many species seek out nursery habitat that offers a safe place to hide, and a healthy supply of food. Whether by instinct or chemical cue, juvenile organisms settle on nursery areas to pass a most perilous time of development. In our changing world, nursery areas are becoming quickly degraded. Therefore, having a system for quantifying the value of individual nursery habitat is central to maintaining populations

My research focuses on developing methods for quantifying nursery habitat based on adult fish production. Specifically, I am using the spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) and their unique relationship to seagrasses in Chesapeake Bay. The seatrout population in the bay is unique. Juveniles settle on seagrass beds for the duration of the summer and migrate to warmer oceanic waters during the fall.  The following spring, these fish return as adults ready to continue the cycle. Using the chemical signature of the fish otolith (earstone), I can track survival from the juvenile stage to adulthood, therefore allowing me to determine the most productive seagrass beds.

There are several components to my research. The first, and most enjoyable, is the collection of juvenile seatrout across the Chesapeake Bay. These collections are then analyzed at several research institutions where I employ solution based Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICPMS) and stable isotope analyses. The final component is the classification of adults to their natal beds where I am applying new methodology to this area of fishery research.