Dusty A. Swedberg
Evan P. Tanner
Samuel D. Fuhlendorf
Shannon K. Brewer
Skylar L. Wolf
2023
<div id="preview-section-abstract"><div id="abstracts" class="Abstracts u-font-serif"><div id="ab0010" class="abstract author"><div id="abs0010"><p id="sp0035"><span>Studies of thermal selection by organisms, including fishes, are common and provide data that are useful for conservation and management. Advances in temperature sensing technology have improved these studies; however, the benefits of new technology (e.g., increased accuracy and greater deployment flexibility) should be carefully considered and compared to disadvantages (e.g., higher costs and training requirements). Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) has become more common in aquatic applications and may provide a novel and useful method of relating thermal patchiness to habitat selection by fishes or other aquatic organisms. We present a case study using FO-DTS to conduct a microhabitat-scale resource selection study using stream fishes of the Ozark Highland ecoregion in the south-central United States. We describe the setup and deployment of FO-DTS and how it was integrated into traditional microhabitat survey methods at three stream sites that were repeatedly surveyed over consecutive days. We successfully used FO-DTS to characterize thermal selection by Neosho Bass </span><span>Micropterus<i> velox</i></span><span> </span>at our sites and conclude that the technology would be applicable to similar, microhabitat-scale evaluations. We then compare costs, benefits, and disadvantages of FO-DTS to other sensing methods that could have been used to complete our study. We found that FO-DTS provided accurate measures and greater coverage compared to most alternatives but that equipment costs were far greater. We provide suggestions for additional fisheries applications where FO-DTS may be useful while acknowledging that in some instances, the upfront costs of the technology may outweigh the potential benefits.</p></div></div></div></div><div id="preview-section-introduction"><br></div>
application/pdf
10.1016/j.fishres.2022.106542
en
Elsevier
Using fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing in fisheries applications: An example from the Ozark Highlands
article