Population dynamics of age-0 walleye in western Lake Erie

Finding the factors that determine recruitment for various fishes has been the primary objective in fisheries science for over a century. Another goal of fisheries science has been to further the understanding of how individual stocks interact both among themselves and with the environment. This thesis attempts to explore both recruitment variability and the stock structure of walleye (Sander vitreus Mitchell 1818) in western Lake Erie.; Year-class strength has been associated with variables that describe the environment of a fish population. Walleye are a percid species whose populations are influenced by environmental factors and thus resource managers on Lake Erie have a long tradition of investigating environment-recruitment relationships. This thesis reviews historic relationships between environmental variables and walleye recruitment in Lake Erie and then re-evaluates the influence of environmental factor using a data set that covers the period of 1987--2001. None of the historic relationships between walleye recruitment and environmental variables held during the 15-year period of study. Environmental variables overall explained very little of the interannual variation in walleye recruitment in Lake Erie. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...