Abstract

The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory developed an independent fishery assessment and monitoring (FAM) program in 1974 to survey four fixed stations semi-monthly using a beam plankton net (BPL) and two fixed stations monthly using a 50-ft bag seine in coastal waters surrounding the Bay of Biloxi and continues to maintain this program today. During the past 42 years of the FAM program, 740,911 individuals from 120 species (107 finfish and 13 invertebrates) were collected with the BPL and 943,686 individuals from 135 species (124 finfish and 11 invertebrates) were collected with the 50-ft bag seine. Nonparametric multivariate analyses were used to compare indices of annual abundance and diversity of estuarine species from BPL and seine collections from the period 1974-2015. These indices were grouped separately by weather-related hy-drographic years imposed by the coupling of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) phases. Analyses revealed an influence of the coupling of AMO and NAO phases on the abundance and composi-tion of estuarine organisms in the study region. Estuarine species richness and abundance for the BPL were higher during the wet regime (1974-1994) and lower during the dry regime (1995-2015). Diversity metrics were relatively steady for the BPL and variable for the seine throughout the study period, as some species decreased, increased or were stable for both gears, and other species vanished or appeared. Further analysis will be able to quantify the influence of weather-related hydrographic characteristics imposed by climate variability on the estuarine community in Mississippi coastal waters.

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