Friday, October 12, 2012: 6:00 PM
Hall 4E/F (WSCC)
The preservation of ocean life and its resources is quite a daunting task. Characterizing fish species by location and habitat type is a useful strategy for overcoming these challenges and may also be applied for the designation of marine protected areas (MPA’s). Through habitat characterization and analysis I seek to find if relationships exist between different age classes of E. jacksoni and their preferred habitat structure and composition. My approach is to use species locations, habitat data, and fish age to produce a predictive habitat model. Fish were obtained from 6 locations in the Monterey Peninsula. Age will be determined by counting concentric growth rings of otholiths. The otoliths will be aged using glycerin as a clearing agent to enhance the clarity between annuli. GIS landscape analysis and spatial statistics will be employed to test and model the association of fish location and age with the habitat parameters of depth, topographic position index, and rugosity derived from seafloor mapping bathymetric data. This information may hold value in future monitoring of the life cycles of E. jacksoni and other ecologically vulnerable species.