ANALYSES FOR DIFFERENTIATING LITTORAL FISH ASSEMBLAGES WITH CATCH DATA FROM MULTIPLE SAMPLING GEARS

We evaluated analytical approaches to discriminating littoral fish ass emblages with catch data from multiple sampling gears. Eight littoral sites were sampled with seines, fyke nets, and gill nets in Lake Mendo ta, Wisconsin, in summer 1990. No one gear sampled the full compositio n represented by the total catch. Fyke nets best discerned differences among littoral fish assemblages. Young-of-year (age-0) bluegills Lepo mis macrochirus and age-0 black crappies Pomoxis nigromaculatus caught in the fyke nets were the strongest discriminators among sites. Gill nets did not differentiate among sites. With the seine and fyke net, a nalysis of absolute abundance data detected differences among sites; a nalysis of presence-absence and rank abundance data did not. Fish caug ht in fyke nets were the most frequent significant correlates in site ordinations based on log-abundance data for taxa, defined as a combina tion of species, age (age 0 or adult) and gear type. Retention of gear designation in site ordination attributes facilitated the assessment of gears for differentiating littoral fish assemblages.