Fish and Habitat Heterogeneity in Four Streams in the Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains Ecoregion

We examined fish assemblages and habitat characteristics in four streams within the Oklahoma portion of the Central Oklahoma/Texas Plains Ecoregion. Our objective was to evaluate the heterogeneity of habitat and fish assemblages within a single ecoregion. We were also interested in whether observed patterns in habitat and fish assemblages were related. We measured habitat characteristics and sampled fish at four sites within each of the four streams. MANOVA showed significant differences in habitat among streams, and a UPGMA cluster analysis of Morisita's similarity index values showed that fish assemblages also differed among streams. A relationship between habitat and fish assemblages was found with CCA, demonstrating that sampling locations with similar habitat contained similar fish assemblages. In addition, tributary streams of the Arkansas River were more similar to each other, in both fish and habitat characteristics, than to tributaries of the Red River. ©1998 Oklahoma Academy of Science

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