Sarah Walters Burnsed

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission | ffwcc · Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

This study investigated the potential effects of red tide events (blooms of the toxin-producing dinoflagellate, Karenia brevis) on Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus), a long-lived migratory game fish, along the southwestern coast of Florida. In this region, red tides have long been associated with mass mortality events of marine organisms and ot...

Marine fish movement plays a critical role in ecosystem functioning and is increasingly studied with acoustic telemetry. Traditionally, this research has focused on single species and small spatial scales. However, integrated tracking networks, such as the Integrated Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico (iTAG) network, are building the...

Marine fish movement plays a critical role in ecosystem functioning and is increasingly studied with acoustic telemetry. Traditionally, this research has focused on single species and small spatial scales. However, integrated tracking networks, such as the Integrated Tracking of Aquatic Animals in the Gulf of Mexico (iTAG) network, are building the...

An understanding of individual variability in spatio-temporal spawning behavior is important to understand productivity and inform stock assessments and management actions. Spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus, popular both with recreational anglers and researchers due to their accessibility and catchability, have frequently been the subject of rep...

Many marine fish form spawning aggregations (FSAs) and exhibit meta-population stock structure, affecting reproductive resilience and the optimal spatial scale of management. Red drum use a known FSA site off Tampa Bay (TB FSA site) and another presumed FSA site off Charlotte Harbor (CH FSA site). We studied these sites for 3 years (2012–2014) to a...

ABSTRACT: Although stock structure is based on reproductive isolation and recruitment to the adult stock is an important parameter for stock assessments, data on the ecological process as individuals move from nursery to adult habitat is rare. As red drum Sciaenops ocellatus show delineated estuarine nursery grounds and coastal spawning habitat, we...

Acoustic telemetry is a powerful tool for investigating the movement ecology of aquatic animals. As the number of studies using passive acoustic telemetry technology has grown in recent years, so has membership in regional collaborative networks in which methodologies and detection data are shared among researchers. These networks can significantly...

Many species that provide productive marine fisheries form spawning aggregations. Aggregations are predictable both in time and space and constitute nearly all of the reproductive activity for these species. For species that spend weeks to months on spawning aggregation sites, individuals may need to rely on a forage base at or near the spawning si...

A close relationship between adult abundance and stock productivity may not exist for many marine fish stocks, resulting in concern that the management goal of maximum sustainable yield is either inefficient or risky. Although reproductive success is tightly coupled with adult abundance and fecundity in many terrestrial animals, in exploited marine...

Spawning site selection and reproductive timing affect stock productivity and structure in marine fishes but are poorly understood. Traditionally, stock assessments measure reproductive potential as spawning stock biomass or egg production and do not include other aspects of reproductive behavior. Red drum make an excellent case study to assess the...

Spawning site selection and reproductive timing affect stock productivity and structure in marine fishes but are poorly understood. Traditionally, stock assessments measure reproductive potential as spawning stock biomass or egg production and do not include other aspects of reproductive behavior. Red drum make an excellent case study to assess the...

We developed a conceptual model of reproductive resilience based on spatio-temporal diversity in spawning activity and the ‘big old fat fecund female fish’ effect, i.e., trends in reproductive traits with size and age. We chose red snapper Lutjanus campechanus as our case study, as this species is highly fecund, currently overfished, and long-lived...

The impact of exogenous factors on larval survival, in conjunction with the large fecundities of most exploited marine species, have led some to conclude that there is often little relationship between reproductive rate and reproductive success at the population level. However, there is a need to distinguish between yield, which is usually well-cor...

Landscape genetic analysis of population connectivity has revealed that spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) typically complete their life cycles within geographically-restricted ranges. For members of spotted seatrout populations along the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the mean estimate of individual (lifetime) dispersal distance does not exceed 100 k...

Connectivity between larval and adult phases has largely focused on demersal teleost fishes and how movement occurs over long distances. Although smaller in scale, spatial partitioning of maturity stages in estuarine fish is important in linking ontogenetic habitat transitions with potential strategies for maximizing fitness. Three estuarine sciaen...

Reproductive behavior affects spatial population structure and our ability to manage for sustainability in marine and diadromous fishes. In this study, we used fishery independent capture-based sampling to evaluate where Common Snook occurred in Tampa Bay and if it changed with spawning season, and passive acoustic telemetry to assess fine scale be...

The parasitic nematode Philometra floridensis infects the ovary of its only host, the economically important fish species Sciaenops ocellatus, but the factors influencing host susceptibility and potential pathogenic effects are unknown. Here we report new information on these topics from evaluations of infected and uninfected hosts collected from t...

Older and larger marine teleosts with indeterminate fecundity can produce the majority of eggs in a population through increased batch fecundity and extended spawning seasons. Maintaining these females in the spawning population has been hypothesized to increase resilience. Two studies (1996-98 and 2006-09) targeting spawning aggregations of adult...

The red drum Sciaenops ocellatus supports one of the largest and most popular fisheries in the southeastern United States. In the last federal assessment (yr 2000), the Gulf of Mexico stock was classified as “overfished”. However, the assessment was limited, in large part, by the lack of data for the offshore adult population. The data gap has rema...

Advances in our understanding of effective breeding populations, spatial dynamics, and the role of spawning population age structure are changing how we assess productivity in marine fishes. Red drum spawning populations off Southwest Florida have been sampled in 1996-1998, 2006-2009, and in an on-going study started in 2012. In the ten year period...

Variability in individual lifetime reproductive success is known to have important consequences for population dynamics, yet it is often poorly understood in marine fishes. We evaluated spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus spawning site fidelity and reproductive timing at both the population and individual level at a resident spawning aggregation s...

A passive acoustic survey using a random stratified design detected spawning aggregations of sand seatrout Cynoscion arenarius over 2 sequential spawning seasons (2004 and 2005) in Tampa Bay, Florida. In 2005, an intense Karenia brevis red tide at ichthyotoxic concentrations entered Tampa Bay 3 mo after the spawning season began. The bloom persiste...

Fish spawning populations are complex and affected by many factors acting over temporal, spatial, and demographic scales. To better understand these factors, we chose to study spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus, which has closed populations over small spatial scales and a periodic life-history pattern. We used experimental gill nets and hook and...

The spatial distribution of spawning activity can affect the reproductive success of certain fishes, and locating the key areas is critical to accurately assessing and managing their populations. We determined estuarine spawning locations for spotted seatrout Cynoscion nebulosus during the 2004 summer spawning season in Tampa Bay, Florida, using a...

Diel and seasonal periodicities of a resident Tampa Bay spotted seatrout (Cynoscion nebulosus) spawning aggregation were determined using passive acoustics during the 2004 spawning season. This was possible because spotted seatrout males make courtship sounds or calls associated with spawning. Data were collected by two long-term acoustic recording...

Throughout their range, hard clams of the genus Mercenaria support important commercial fisheries, and hard clam aquaculture is rapidly developing in several regions, including Florida, USA. Commercial hard clam aquaculture in Florida waters originated in the Indian River Lagoon during the late 1970s, but by the early 1990s the focus of the industr...

Spotted seatrout, Cynoscion nebulosus, spawning locations as well as associated environmental variables were determined for Tampa Bay, Florida during the 2004 spawning season using a mobile hydrophone survey. Hydrophones, a type of underwater microphone, can be used to detect and record spawning sounds of soniferous fishes. During their spawning se...