Using Long‐Term Monitoring Data to Assess Temporal Patterns in Fish Community Assemblages in Florida Lakes

ABSTRACT In an effort to increase the relevancy of fish community data for management, we used fish community data to conduct a statewide assessment of Florida's freshwater fisheries resources and compare the relationships between environmental factors and freshwater fish communities over time. Fish community weight and count data were obtained for 21 lakes sampled as part of Florida's Long‐Term Monitoring (LTM) program from 2006 to 2021. Results suggest that gamefish and nongamefish assemblages in these lakes can be dynamic, and these differences are related to variables at local (e.g., water depth), lake (e.g., trophic state index), and regional (e.g., annual average daily precipitation) scales. Although some similarities exist among lakes, fish assemblage patterns and their relationships to these variables were often specific to individual lakes or subgroups of lakes, which indicates the challenge of characterizing the status and temporal patterns in fish communities over a large spatial area.