A study of the phytoplankton communities of Lake Ray Roberts was conducted at three sampling sites on two sampling dates during the summer of 1995, assessing both community structure and chlorophyll a concentrations. Eight similarity indices were then used to characterize and compare the communities of these sites. Both community similarity and chlorophyll a concentrations were evaluated using a minimum detectable difference equation to determine the amount of change that must occur in these parameters in order to be deemed statistically significant. The Bray-Curtis Index was shown to be the most adequate index evaluated, and was subsequently used in conjunction with bootstrap analysis to determine the similarity between the three sampling sites.

Excessive nutrient loading of natural and artificial lakes has led, in some systems, to plethoric algal and aquatic macrophyte growth which can result in aesthetic degradation and undesirable tastes and odors. It would be advantageous to have some indication of the potential trophic status of a reservoir before it is filled. An objective of this study was to assess the water quality and nutrient loading potential of the tributaries entering Ray Roberts Lake, a large reservoir located in north central Texas. Samples from a maximum of thirteen sites were collected on the Elm Fork, Trinity River, Isle duBois Creek, and five additional tributaries. Data were also collected during six storms, from atmospheric deposition collectors, and from soil-water microcosms. The relationship between watershed landuse and mean water nutrient concentrations was evaluated. Significant differences will exist between the two major arms of Ray Roberts Lake: Elm Fork, Trinity River and Isle duBois Creek. While the majority of the annual phosphorus and nitrogen load entering both tributaries is coming from overland flow, the proportion is higher in Isle duBois Creek. Point sources in the Elm Fork contribute a larger percentage of the bioavailable phosphorus, which is significantly greater than in Isle duBois Creek. The water quality of Isle duBois Creek, especially nitrogen, is affected to a greater degree by the landuses in its watershed. Predictive regression models made accurate estimations of stream nutrient concentrations in Isle duBois Creek. The entire reservoir, upon reaching equilibrium conditions, will be classified as a eutrophic lake. The Trinity arm, with a higher phosphorus load, will display a higher trophic status. The Isle duBois arm has a lower phosphorus load which will give it a lower trophic status. The long hydraulic residence time of the two arms of the reservoir will remove nutrients upstream of the main body, thus contributing to overall better water quality in the main body of the reservoir.

Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was used to explore relationships between measured environmental variables and in situ phytoplankton communities in a moderately eutrophic North Texas Reservoir.

A total of 192 largemouth bass were caught at Lake Ray Roberts, Texas (1995) to investigate five controversial bass angling techniques relative to hooking mortality. The bait types were Texas-rigged scented and non-scented plastic worms, Carolina-rigged scented and non-scented plastic worms, and live golden shiners. Overall hooking mortality was 21.87% and mortality was dependent upon bait type. Highest mortality resulted from the Texas-rigged scented lures, while the lowest mortality was generated by live golden shiners. A creel survey indicated that few anglers were having success with the investigated baits. Factors that had a confirmed effect on hooking mortality were hooking location and water temperature. Hooking mortality was not excessive compared to other similar studies.

This study focused on the effectiveness of integrating traditional plant community analyses with landscape ecological analyses based on remotely sensed data. A temporal analysis of plant community diversity was conducted for major plant communities of the Ray Roberts Lake area using transect monitoring data collected between 1987 and 1997. Landscape analyses were performed with FRAGSTATS*ARC using classified SPOT satellite imagery for 1987 and 1997. Although the methodology developed in this work was exploratory, it was found that characterizing the dynamics of major plant communities in the study area produced a more effective and insightful analysis of Ray Roberts Lake area landscape dynamics.

Biological diversity is a key component in assessing ecosystem health. Alteration, degradation and loss of habitat due to human influence is currently the primary stressor resulting in decreases in diversity. Reliable assessment of large areas in terms of biological integrity are needed for conservation and preservation efforts. Remotely sensed data provide an integrated view of reflected electromagnetic energy over large areas of the earth. These energy patterns provide unique spectral signatures which can be correlated to land cover and habitat. This research sought relationships between traditional ecological measures and information gathered from satellite digital imagery. Reliable interpretation of earth surface characteristics relies largely on accurate rectification to a map projection and subsequent thematic classification. Use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for rectification was superior than digitizing topographical maps. Differentially corrected GPS locations provided optimum rectification with SPOT satellite imagery while marginally better rectifications were obtained for Landsat MSS imagery using uncorrected GPS positions. SPOT imagery provided more accurate land cover classifications than did MSS. Detection of temporal land cover change using MSS imagery was hampered by confusion among intermediate successional classes. Confusion between upland and bottomland forest classes occurred with both SPOT and MSS. Landscape analyses using thematic maps produced from the previously discussed endeavors suggested that terrestrial habitat in the Ray Roberts Lake area became more fragmented and complex in shape. Habitat patches became smaller but more numerous. Forested areas were most effected and conservation efforts should focus on management strategies that promote vegetation succession and forest maturation. Remotely sensed SPOT data were successfully used to predict tree basal area. There were no significant relationships found with other in situ measures or between MSS data and any vegetation measures. Remote sensing provided information suitable for large scale projects concerning landscape-level ecological issues. Rectification and classification accuracies were the primary factors influencing meaningful interpretation. Project goals should determine the scale of remotely sensed data and acceptable level of accuracy.

The objective of this research was to determine if physical and microbial sediment characterizations could be used to explain benthic macroinvertebrate distribution in two branches of Lake Ray Roberts, Texas.

As part of a pre-impoundment study for the Ray Roberts Reservoir Area, Landsat-5 multi-spectral scanner (MSS) imagery was used for cover type interpretation. This research was concerned with analysis techniques for MSS images and a comparison of results obtained using computer assisted interpretatin of MSS images and a comparison of results obtained using computer assisted interpretation of MSS images with those obtained using manual interpretation of false color infrared (CIR) photographs.

Environmental management agencies make efforts to reduce pollution loading in streams and rivers by promoting vegetated buffer zones between human activity and water. Most of these efforts do not mesh water quality-based buffer zone width requirements with conservation and wildlife values, specifically, the use of these riparian forest corridors for wildlife dispersal between habitats in highly fragmented landscapes. Forest interior birds are of the most concern to management in riparian forests due to their population declines across much of their breeding range. This dissertation investigates the role that landscape-level and habitat-level factors play on the presence of breeding birds in riparian forests, particularly the landscape and habitat factors that are influenced by human-caused fragmentation. This study describes research at the Ray Roberts Greenbelt, Denton, Texas, that explores the relationships between the landscape and forest habitats of the Greenbelt with its breeding bird community. The major findings of this study are that bird communities in the corridor forests are associated with a greater array of factors than are bird communities in patches, suggesting that the birds of patch forests are somewhat insulated from landscape-scale effects. Also, habitat values can be maintained in corridors, but there does not seem to be a significant relationship between the bird communities and the habitat. Forest factors are the primary influences (as inferred from the number of associations and the relative strength of these associations) on the bird communities of the Ray Roberts Greenbelt. Thresholds of richness or abundance in the amount of forest as compared with the forest interior bird community suggest that patches are better than corridors to support this community, and that the more interior forest available, the better for forest interior birds. The suggested minimum amount of forest derived from these thresholds is 35% of the amount of forest within 1 kilometer of any given part of the Greenbelt. Thresholds in forest width for avian communities suggest a minimum width of 200 m for any corridor. Thresholds in distance from interior forest suggest that the forest interior bird community can be best supported by shorter corridors that connect larger patches, with a suggested maximum corridor length of 125 m.

In this research, hyperspectral and multispectral images were utilized for vegetation studies in the greenbelt corridor near Denton. EO-1 Hyperion was the hyperspectral image and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) was the multispectral image used for this research. In the first part of the research, both the images were classified for land cover mapping (after necessary atmospheric correction and geometric registration) using supervised classification method with maximum likelihood algorithm and accuracy of the classification was also assessed for comparison. Hyperspectral image was preprocessed for classification through principal component analysis (PCA), segmented principal component analysis and minimum noise fraction (MNF) transform. Three different images were achieved after these pre-processing of the hyperspectral image. Therefore, a total of four images were classified and assessed the accuracy. In the second part, a more precise and improved land cover study was done on hyperspectral image using linear spectral unmixing method. Finally, several vegetation constituents like chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, caroteoids were distinguished from the hyperspectral image using feature-oriented principal component analysis (FOPCA) method and which component dominates which type of land cover particularly vegetation were correlated.