Annual Variation in Fish Assemblages of Watersheds with Stable and Changing Land Use

Abstract Freshwater fish assemblages are sensitive to changes in land use, but it is unclear how rapidly assemblages respond to such change or how closely they track physical changes in the stream environment. We monitored fish assemblages at the outflow of three watersheds on the outer coastal plain of Mississippi over a period of 8 y. The watersheds differed in patterns of land use, being predominantly forested, rapidly urbanizing, and long-urbanized, respectively. Watersheds were distinct in fish species composition, differing primarily in abundance of Etheostoma lynceum, E. stigmaeum, Luxilus chrysocephalus and Lythrurus roseipinnis. Species richness was consistently greatest at the predominantly forested site and least at the urbanized site. Fish assemblages were distinguishable in terms of substrate preference, water-speed, silt tolerance, and trophic habit. The stream draining the urbanizing watershed showed an increase in richness of species of high silt tolerance and a decrease in richness of those preferring a gravel substrate over the sampling period. Contrary to expectation, annual variation in composition was modest relative to differences among sites. Annual variation in richness and numbers was unrelated to measures of streamflow or seasonal precipitation. Changes in stream character related to land use change appear to have impacted the fish assemblages of these streams, but the transition to an urban fish assemblage in the urbanizing stream occurred before the study period, well before the obvious signs of physical degradation appeared at the site.

[1]  Glenn Matlack,et al.  Utilization of Parking Lots in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, USA, and Impacts on Local Streams , 1999, Environmental management.

[2]  Melvin L. Warren,et al.  Road Crossings as Barriers to Small-Stream Fish Movement , 1998 .

[3]  C. Jackson,et al.  URBANIZATION OF AQUATIC SYSTEMS: DEGRADATION THRESHOLDS, STORMWATER DETECTION, AND THE LIMITS OF MITIGATION 1 , 1997 .

[4]  J. Yeakley,et al.  NEAR‐STREAM LANDUSE EFFECTS ON STREAMWATER NUTRIENT DISTRIBUTION IN AN URBANIZING WATERSHED 1 , 2001 .

[5]  D. Mavinic,et al.  STREAM HEALTH AFTER URBANIZATION 1 , 2000 .

[6]  E. Tramer.  Catastrophic Mortality of Stream Fishes Trapped in Shrinking Pools , 1977 .

[7]  C. C. Watson,et al.  EFFECTS OF URBANIZATION ON CHANNEL INSTABILITY 1 , 2001 .

[8]  J. Nichols,et al.  COMDYN: Software to study the dynamics of animal communities using a capture-recapture approach , 1999 .

[9]  D. Magoulick.  Spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblages of drying stream pools: The role of abiotic and biotic factors , 2000, Aquatic Ecology.

[10]  M. Conroy,et al.  Analysis and Management of Animal Populations , 2002 .

[11]  J. Crawford,et al.  Effects of land use on water quality and aquatic biota of three North Carolina Piedmont streams , 1994, Hydrobiologia.

[12]  A. Sheldon.  Species Diversity and Longitudinal Succession in Stream Fishes , 1968 .

[13]  N. LeRoy Poff,et al.  Implications of Streamflow Variability and Predictability for Lotic Community Structure: A Regional Analysis of Streamflow Patterns , 1989 .

[14]  Q. J. Stober,et al.  Effects of Urban Development on Fish Population Dynamics in Kelsey Creek, Washington , 1986 .

[15]  Robert J. Steedman,et al.  Modification and Assessment of an Index of Biotic Integrity to Quantify Stream Quality in Southern Ontario , 1988 .

[16]  Susanna T. Y. Tong,et al.  An integrated exploratory approach to examining the relationships of environmental stressors and fish responses , 2001 .

[17]  M. Winterbourn.  The river continuum concept — reply to Barmuta and Lake , 1982 .

[18]  Carl W. Ramm,et al.  Persistence and stability of fish community structure in a southwest New York stream , 1994 .

[19]  H. Garie,et al.  DISTRIBUTION OF BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES IN A STREAM EXPOSED TO URBAN RUNOFF , 1986 .

[20]  M. Power.  Habitat Heterogeneity and The Functional Signifiance of Fish in River Food Webs , 1992 .

[21]  R. Forman.  Land Mosaics: The Ecology of Landscapes and Regions , 1995 .

[22]  Luther P. Aadland,et al.  Stream Habitat Types: Their Fish Assemblages and Relationship to Flow , 1993 .

[23]  E. Tramer,et al.  Diversity and Longitudinal Zonation in Fish Populations of Two Streams Entering a Metropolitan Area , 1973 .

[24]  J. W. Thomas,et al.  Forest ecosystem management : an ecological, economic, and social assessment. Report of the forest ecosystem management assessment team , 1993 .

[25]  J. Karr.  Assessment of Biotic Integrity Using Fish Communities , 1981 .

[26]  M. Lydy,et al.  An Assessment of Water Quality, Physical Habitat, and Biological Integrity of an Urban Stream in Wichita, Kansas, Prior to Restoration Improvements (Phase I) , 2003, Archives of environmental contamination and toxicology.

[27]  A. J. Stewart,et al.  Grazing Minnows, Piscivorous Bass, and Stream Algae: Dynamics of a Strong Interaction , 1985 .

[28]  I. Schlosser,et al.  Species-Area Relationship for Stream Fishes , 1989 .

[29]  Mary C. Freeman,et al.  ASSEMBLAGE ORGANIZATION IN STREAM FISHES: EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION AND INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS , 1998 .

[30]  R. Klein.  URBANIZATION AND STREAM QUALITY IMPAIRMENT , 1979 .

[31]  J. Pratt,et al.  Ecological effects of urban stormwater runoff on benthic macroinvertebrates inhabiting the Green River, Massachusetts , 1981, Hydrobiologia.

[32]  L. Hall,et al.  Fish assemblages as indicators of environmental degradation in Maryland coastal plain streams , 1997 .

[33]  Paul M. Mather.  Computational Methods of Multivariate Analysis in Physical Geography , 1976 .

[34]  W. J. Matthews,et al.  Persistence of Stream Fish Assemblages: Effects of Environmental Change , 1985, The American Naturalist.

[35]  S. Ross,et al.  The Response of Fishes to Periodic Spring Floods in a Southeastern Stream , 1983 .

[36]  H. Pulliam,et al.  Sources, Sinks, and Population Regulation , 1988, The American Naturalist.

[37]  John Lyons,et al.  WATERSHED URBANIZATION AND CHANGES IN FISH COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHEASTERN WISCONSIN STREAMS 1 , 2000 .

[38]  G. Garman,et al.  Urbanization of a Watershed and Historical Changes in a Stream Fish Assemblage , 1994 .

[39]  A. Magurran.  Ecological Diversity and Its Measurement , 1988, Springer Netherlands.

[40]  K. Cummins,et al.  Effects of Long-Term Disturbance on Riparian Vegetation and In-Stream Characteristics , 1999 .

[41]  Steve L. Schleiger.  Use of an Index of Biotic Integrity to Detect Effects of Land Uses on Stream Fish Communities in West‐Central Georgia , 2000 .

[42]  Jonathan G. Kennen,et al.  RELATION OF MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY IMPAIRMENT TO CATCHMENT CHARACTERISTICS IN NEW JERSEY STREAMS 1 , 1999 .

[43]  D. Dixon,et al.  A quarter century of change in the fish communities of three small streams modified by anthropogenic activities , 1997 .

[44]  M. T. O’Connell.  Direct Exploitation of Prey on an Inundated Floodplain by Cherryfin Shiners (Lythrurus roseipinnis) in a Low Order, Blackwater Stream , 2003, Copeia.

[45]  T. Berra,et al.  Comparison of fish communities in a clean-water stream and an adjacent polluted stream , 1987 .

[46]  K. Burnham,et al.  Robust Estimation of Population Size When Capture Probabilities Vary Among Animals , 1979 .

[47]  Bruce B. Collette,et al.  The Diversity of Fishes , 1997 .

[48]  Edward P. Gardiner,et al.  Effects of land cover on sediment regime and fish assemblage structure in four southern Appalachian streams , 2002 .

[49]  Brett Albanese.  Movement of fishes in a network of streams and implications for persistence , 2001 .

[50]  Stanley J. Kemp,et al.  Effects of Urbanization on Brown Trout Salmo Trutta, Other Fishes and Macroinvertebrates in Valley Creek, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania , 1997 .