My research focused on how fish communities are responding to watershed land use and instream
habitat in tributaries of the Lower Bogue Chitto River. To address this question I electrofished and seined 10 sites in four tributaries of the Bogue Chitto River a total of 4 times each over the course of 15 months in 2007 and 2008. I characterized habitat by measuring water flow, water depth, substrate size, woody debris, temperature, and dissolved oxygen, and quantified heterotrophic plate counts, nutrients, and
chlorophyll a concentrations at the end of the sampling period each year. Watershed land cover was measured with 2001 USGS Land use/Land cover data, and my analysis focused on cultivated cropland and pasture land, as well as forested and herbaceous wetlands. Many of the most common fishes responded positively to differences in stream characteristics, particularly increased nitrate and agricultural development, and decreased wetlands, which are typically
characteristic of anthropogenic stream impacts. Other fishes responded to increased flow and substrate size, which appeared to characterize less disturbed stream conditions. Overall, fish diversity was negatively associated with distance from the mainstem Bogue Chitto River. These results suggest that in nutrient limited systems, some fishes respond positively to anthropogenic alterations, and that watershedbased
characteristics are more important than local habitat variables in predicting fish assemblage
composition and abundance in these streams.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-08272009-165154 |
| Date | 28 August 2009 |
| Creators | Ward, Brian Michael |
| Contributors | Kelso, William E., Rutherford, D. Allen, Kaller, Michael D. |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-08272009-165154/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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