Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Florida
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Studying the effects of abiotic and biotic factors on fish populations is a long-standing tradition in fisheries science. However, there is less information on how fish populations and communities respond to abiotic and biotic factors across broad spatial extents, diverse lake types, and associated gradients in lake surface area, trophic state, and aquatic macrophyte coverage, particularly in Florida. There is a need to evaluate how environmental factors varying across large regions affect fish populations, fish communities, and fisheries management. Addressing these knowledge gaps could reveal useful information for managing fish populations and communities in regions with wide-ranging environmental conditions, and predicting how fish populations and communities may respond to environmental changes. The objective of this study is to investigate fish population and community characteristics in relation to abiotic and biotic factors across wide-ranging conditions of lake surface area, trophic state, and macrophyte abundance in Florida. Our research will generate data summaries and statistical models to quantify and predict fish occurrence, abundance, growth, and related population/community characteristics in Florida lakes.