IMPACT OF CLIMATOLOGICAL EVENTS ON THE SPAWNING OF SONIFEROUS SCIAENIDS IN THE MAY RIVER ESTUARY, SOUTH CAROLINA

                                                                      IMPACT OF CLIMATOLOGICAL EVENTS ON THE SPAWNING OF SONIFEROUS SCIAENIDS IN THE MAY RIVER ESTUARY, SOUTH CAROLINA                                                                                                                                                               Makiah Mooney, Dr. Amanda M. Kaltenberg, Alyssa Marian, Dr. Eric Montie                                                                                                                        The U.S east coast experiences various climatological anomalies. In the past decade, estuaries along the South Atlantic Bight have experienced hurricanes, tropical storms, temperature anomalies, and heavy rain events. Extreme climatological events like these are hypothesized to impact various estuarine fauna. This study investigated potential impacts of climatological events on the spawning season of soniferous fishes in the May River Estuary, South Carolina. Analysis of the call intensity of each soniferous sciaenid species was quantified from acoustic hydrophone data collected over the past 10 years at station 37M in the May River. Call intensity of each species was compared for years with a climatological event to adjacent years without an event. Results showed that call intensity of red drum were lower during a hurricane and increased again after the storm, suggesting that the hurricane could possibly impact their spawning season. All red drum chorusing in 2016 occurred before Hurricane Matthew struck the area, but no chorusing was observed afterwards. However, chorusing did occur immediately following Hurricane Irma in 2017. A cold summer period was observed in 2020, but did not notably impact the summer spawning season of spotted seatrout. The number of summer chorusing events in 2020 was similar to the number of chorusing events in other years. Additional ongoing analyses on the potential impact between climatic events and soniferous sciaenids will improve our understanding of how a changing climate may impact estuarine ecosystems.

Presentation Preference: Oral

Primary Presenter: Makiah Mooney, Savannah State University (mmooney1@student.savannahstate.edu)

Authors:

Makiah Mooney, Savannah State University  (mmooney1@student.savannahstate.edu)

Amanda Kaltenberg, Savannah State University  (kaltenberga@savannahstate.edu)

Alyssa Marian, University of South Carolina Beaufort  (am149@uscb.edu)

Eric Montie, University of South Carolina Beaufort  (emontie@uscb.edu)