An unusually persistent red tide event caused by the ichthyotoxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis occurred along the southwest Florida coast in 2005. Extensive fish kills led to concerns regarding the effect of red tide on fish populations and their subsequent recruitment. Community structure differences were analyzed for all small-and largebodied nekton species collected by fisheries-independent monitoring from 1996 through 2006. Indices of abundance of five economically important fish species were also calculated from this time period. A significant change in small-and large-bodied nekton community structure was apparent from summer 2005 through spring 2006. Declines in the annual recruitment of juvenile spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus), sand seatrout (Cynoscion arenarius), and red drum (Sciaenops ocellatus) were evident in 2005 and 2006. Species-specific subadult and adult abundances, however, were consistent with those of previous years. These community shifts and speciesspecific declines appear to be associated with the red tide event.
Estuaries & Coasts is the journal of the Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation. Begun in 1977 as Chesapeake Science, the journal has gradually expanded its scope and circulation. Today, the journal publishes manuscripts covering aspects of research on physical, chemical, geological or biological systems, as well as management of those systems, at the interface between the land and the sea. The interface is broadly defined to include areas within estuaries, lagoons, wetlands, tidal rivers, watersheds that include estuaries, and near-shore coastal waters. The journal publishes original research findings, reviews, techniques, and comments.
The Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation is a private, nonprofit non partisan organization. The Federation was created in 1971, when the members of two older, regionally-based estuarine research societies (AERS and NEERS) decided that a national organization was needed to address estuarine and coastal issues more broadly. The regionally based Affiliate Societies now number seven and encompass all of the coastal regions that border the United States, Canada and Mexico.
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