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Relations Between Fish Assemblages and Environmental Conditions in Small Coastal-Plain Streams in the Albemarle-Pamlico Drainage Basin, North Carolina

Annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, August 1997, Monterey, California
By Peter M Ruhl, Paul L Angermejer, Roy Smogor

Abstract

A better understanding of relations between fish assemblages and environmental conditions in coastal plain streams is needed for designing indices of biotic integrity and impact-mitigation strategies During 1993-95, the U.S. Geological Survey collected fish, water-chemistry, and basin-, segment-, and reach-level habitat data at one site on each of 16 small streams in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. The sites were located in agricultural areas and included least-impacted unchannelized hardwood-swamp streams and heavily-impacted channelized streams. Species composition was strongly related to soil drainage, amount of wetland buffer, proportion of the basin in cropland, channelization, and associated chemical variables (dissolved organic carbon, organic nitrogen, nitrate, pH, and dissolved oxygen). Streams with poorly-drained soils, more wetland buffer, and little cropland were characterized by relatively few species that tolerate low pH and prefer slow water, such as redfln pickerel and banded sunfish. Streams with well-drained soils, little wetland buffer, more cropland, and channelization tended to have more species, and cyprinids that prefer flowing water Differences in species composition and response to channelization between the inner and outer coastal plain indicated that indices of biotic integrity may need to be developed separately for each region.

Ruhl, P.M., Angermeier, P.L., and Smogor, Roy, 1996, Relations between fish assemblages and environmental conditions in small Coastal Plain streams in the Albemarle-Pamlico Drainage Basin, North Carolina: [abs.] Annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society, August 1997, Monterey, California.