Relationships of Fish Yield to Lake Phytoplankton Standing Crop, Production, and Morphoedaphic Factors

Abstract

Fish yield is related to annual primary production, summer phytoplankton standing crop, and the morphoedaphic index for lakes representing a wide variety of typologies by a series of models in the form of log-log regressions. Tentative boundary conditions are established by which lakes inappropriate to the models can be excluded. Confidence intervals for predicted values about the mean are given for the fish yield–phytoplankton standing crop regression. From this relation, potential yields for the lakes studied are reduced from a range of 10,000 to one of 25-fold. Efficiencies with which carbon is transferred from primary production to fish yield vary by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude and are highest for small, intensively managed ponds and lowest for large, deep, cold-water lakes. Models based upon fish yield as a function of phytoplankton production or standing crop are inherently more accurate and subject to fewer exceptions than are those related to morphoedaphic factors. The former appear to be capable of substantial refinement but even in their present state might be employed to make useful predictions for groups of lakes. A suggested supplement to existing approaches in fishery management involves the following sequence: (1) use of expectation-variability diagrams to obtain an overview of the problem, (2) selection of an appropriate model or models to predict yield, (3) prediction of a range of yields, and (4) implementation of regulations proved successful for other lakes in the same yield category. Key words: fish, lakes, phytoplankton, morphoedaphic index, fishery management