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Size-at-age and body condition of juvenile American lobsters (Homarus americanus) living on cobble and mud in a mixed-bottom embayment in the Bay of Fundy

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Abstract

American lobsters, Homarus americanus, prefer structurally complex cobble bottom for settlement and early development, but this habitat is sparse and some juveniles are likely forced to exploit other habitats, such as mud bottom. Size-at-age and body condition of juvenile lobsters may vary between cobble and mud habitats, due to differences in food and shelter the habitats provide. In this study, we used cobble-filled collectors deployed on mud and cobble bottom to capture juvenile lobsters occupying cobble and mud seafloor in a mixed-bottom embayment in the southwestern Bay of Fundy, Canada. We compared their size-at-age using a recently developed age-determination technique, and their body condition using mass–length relationship, RNA/DNA ratio and protein content. Individuals 3 and 4 years of age inhabiting mud bottom had greater carapace length than same-age conspecifics on cobble, which could be due to greater growth of juveniles in the less preferred mud habitat. We also found that for a similar carapace length lobsters on mud had slightly lower body mass than those on cobble. RNA/DNA ratio and protein content did not differ between juveniles sampled from the two habitats. Our results suggest that mud bottom represents a more important habitat for young lobsters than is currently appreciated. We hypothesize that mud bottom has become a more important juvenile habitat in recent years due to high lobster abundance, which may be forcing some juveniles to move from preferred but saturated cobble patches to other habitats, such as mud.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr Peter Lawton and Michelle Greenlaw at DFO St. Andrews Biological Station for assistance in selecting the sites for this study based on geo-referenced data and local knowledge and to Brent Wilson for producing the map of our study site. We would also like to thank the students and staff in the Rochette laboratory for assisting in the field and the students in the Martyniuk laboratory for assisting with the biochemical analyses. Two anonymous reviewers and the managing editor provided comments and criticism that greatly increased the quality of this manuscript. This project was funded by NSERC (Discovery Grant and Lobster Node of the Canadian Fisheries Research Network) and NBIF (Research Innovation Fund) grants to R. Rochette and a Canada Research Chair to C. Martyniuk. During this project, F. Tang was supported by a NSERC USRA scholarship, K. Dinning by a NSERC CGS and T. Minch by a Canada student work grant.

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  1. Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, 100 Tucker Park Road, PO Box 5050, Saint John, NB, E2L 4L5, Canada

    Feng Tang, Taryn Minch, Kristin Dinning, Christopher J. Martyniuk, Raouf Kilada & Rémy Rochette

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  1. Feng Tang
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  2. Taryn Minch
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  3. Kristin Dinning
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Correspondence to Feng Tang.

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Communicated by P. Gagnon.

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Tang, F., Minch, T., Dinning, K. et al. Size-at-age and body condition of juvenile American lobsters (Homarus americanus) living on cobble and mud in a mixed-bottom embayment in the Bay of Fundy. Mar Biol 162, 69–79 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-014-2559-7

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