Habitat and human influences on larval fish assemblages in northern Lake Huron coastal marsh bays

Great Lakes coastal marshes serve as spawning areas for adult and nurseries for young-of-year fishes, but the capacity of these habitats to facilitate fish reproduction is threatened due to their continued destruction and deg radation. In ol der to appreciate the consequences of marsh loss and degrad ation, we collected fish larvae with icthyoplankton nets during the summers of 1997 and 1998 in three coastal marsh bays in Les Cheneaux, northern Lak e Huron. In addition, we obtained several metrics of human activities and l ocal habitat features (vegetation, water temperature, and substrate slope) and evaluated the importance of these metrics in structuring local larval f ish assemblages. Our study indicated that local habitat features strongly a nd directly affected local larval fish assemblages in Les Cheneaux, while h uman activities did not. However, human activities may have altered local h abitats in Les Cheneaux, thus indirectly impacting local larval fish assemb lages.