New paper on phenology in L&O Letters

Check out our new paper in Limnology and Oceanography Letters examining the implications of increasingly extreme phenology on walleye recruitment.

In our newly published article led by Martha Barta, we find that the phenology of ice-off and walleye spawning, historically tightly-linked phenological events, are becoming decoupled with climate change. While both are shifting earlier and becoming increasingly unpredictable over time, ice-off is shifting about 3.5 times faster than walleye, suggesting walleye are unable to keep up with the pace of climate change. In addition, extreme phenological years (either early or late) were strongly negatively linked with walleye recruitment, meaning climate-driven instability in phenology can have direct consequences for the persistence of this important species.
Photo: Spring walleye fyke netting. Credit: Rachel Benedict, WDNR.