Lake morphometry moderates the relationship between water color and fish biomass in small boreal lakes

Abstract

Lake morphometry may moderate the effects of water color on fish biomass in boreal lakes, but empirical evidence is scarce because there are a limited number of lakes for which both water color and bathymetry have been measured. We evaluated variations in catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE), an indicator of fish biomass, across orthogonal gradients of light extinction and mean depth in 16 small Swedish lakes (mean depth 1.7–4.8 m, surface area 1–10 ha). Multiple regression coefficients indicated that the effect of light extinction on CPUE was negative, and that the relationship was more negative for deeper lakes than it was for shallower lakes. The pattern was strongest for lakes with mean depths between 2.1 m and 3.5 m. We estimated that 26% of small lakes in boreal Sweden fall within this mean depth range. These results contribute to the growing understanding of how variations in water color and lake morphometry influence patterns of fish biomass across the boreal landscape.