Habitat Use by YOY in the Littoral Zone of an Artificially Heated Reservoir

Abstract

Abstract Both temporal and spatial distributions of a young of the year (YOY) fish community were studied in the littoral zone of a French reservoir. The time survey indicated that littoral occupation highly depends on YOY time of appearance. During late spring and summer, the smallest white bream YOY (L T < 20 mm) were restricted to complex habitats whereas those of pumpkinseed occupied all available habitats. Growing white bream progressively migrated to open water areas. At that time, pumpkinseed was the only species sampled in abundance in the littoral zone and was still collected in all habitats. The success of the introduction of pumpkinseed might be explained by both its late hatching and its opportunistic strategy in habitat selection enabling it to exploit physical spaces left vacant. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)