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Abstract
The Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus) was once of great commercial importance in many coastal rivers of the eastern U.S.A. Over the 19th-20th centuries, harvest and infrastructural projects, such as damming and dredging, depleted most historical stocks. Even after their listing as endangered in 2012, the population dynamics of Atlantic Sturgeon are not well understood, especially in southern rivers. The objectives of this study were to use capture-mark-recapture methods to estimate recruitment of age-1 Atlantic Sturgeon in the Altamaha River, GA from 2008-2020, and to determine whether variations in recruitment were related to river flow trends. This study provides managers insight into long-term trends of a stable Atlantic Sturgeon population in a southern river (age-1 abundance estimates ranged from 163 individuals in 2017 to 3,839 in 2010), and demonstrates how large-scale climatically influenced flow patterns, particularly during the pre-spawning and spawning periods, can affect the life history of riverine fishes.