Abstract

Aquatic plants play important roles in structuring freshwater fish assemblages. I examined the importance for fishes of vegetated backwater habitats in a cove at Aliceville Lake, an impoundment of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. I made an inventory of adult fishes compiled from earlier reports and compared it with early life stages of fishes collected with light traps. I expected that my abundance and species richness of young fishes collected reflected the overall abundance and species richness reported in the literature. I collected 1,778 fishes (1,388 early life stages, 78%, and 390 juveniles, 22%) representing 12 genera and 10 families. These 10 families represented 62.5% of the families previously reported having adults in Aliceville Lake. My experimental tests confirmed that the light trap is efficient in attracting fishes. My results confirmed that the study cove was not as strongly used as spawning ground as one would predict based on previous reports. Factors influencing this variability in habitat use in these habitats still remain unknown. Fishes at Aliceville Lake may respond to habitat complexity at scales other than those considered in my study and along habitat structure other than macrophytes. Although my study documents important use of all habitat types in vegetated backwaters at Aliceville Lake, further investigation is necessary to better understand the complex relation between early life stages of fishes and aquatic plants. Identification of these factors and knowledge of their mechanisms would facilitate better management of these ecologically important ecosystems.

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