Road Crossings as Barriers to Small-Stream Fish Movement

Abstract We used mark–recapture techniques to examine the effects of four types of road crossings on fish movement during spring base flows and summer low flows in small streams of the Ouachita Mountains, west-central Arkansas. We assessed movement for 21 fish species in seven families through culvert, slab, open-box, and ford crossings and through natural reaches. We detected no seasonal or directional bias in fish movement through any crossing type or the natural reaches. Overall fish movement was an order of magnitude lower through culverts than through other crossings or natural reaches, except no movement was detected through the slab crossing. In contrast, open-box and ford crossings showed little difference from natural reaches in overall movement of fishes. Numbers of species that traversed crossings and movement within three of four dominant fish families (Centrarchidae, Cyprinidae, and Fundulidae) also were reduced at culverts relative to ford and open-box crossings and natural reaches. In sprin...

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