Assessing Relationships Between Human Land Uses and the Decline of Native Mussels, Fish, and Macroinvertebrates in the Clinch and Powell River Watershed, Usa

Abstract

The free-flowing Clinch and Powell watershed in Virginia, USA, harbors a high number of endemic mussel and fish species but they are declining or going extinct at an alarming rate. To prioritize resource management strategies with respect to these fauna, a geographical information system was developed and various statistical approaches were used to relate human land uses with available fish, macroinvertebrate, and native mussel assemblage data. Both the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera (EPT) family-level index, and the fish index of biotic integrity (IBI) were lowest in a subwatershed with the greatest coal mining activity (analysis of variance [ANOVA], p < 0.05). Limited analyses in two other subwatersheds suggested that urban and agricultural land uses within a specified riparian corridor were more related to mussel species richness and fish IBI than land uses in entire catchments. Based on land uses within a riparian corridor of 200 m x 2 km for each biological site in the watershed, fish IBI was inversely related to percent cropland and urban area and positively related to pasture area (stepwise multiple regression, R2 = 0.55, p < 0.05). Sites less than 2 km downstream of urban areas, major highways, or coal mine activities had a significantly lower mean IBI value than those more than 2 km away (ANOVA, p < .05). Land use effects included poorer instream cover and higher substrate embeddedness (t test, p < 0.05). Weaker land use relationships were observed for EPT and mussel species richness. Episodic spills of toxic materials, originating from transportation corridors, mines, and industrial facilities, also have resulted in local extirpations of native species. particularly mussels. The number of co-occurring human activities was directly related to stream elevation in the Clinch River, with more human land uses in headwater areas. Approximately 60% of known U.S. Fish and Wildlife mussel concentration sites in the watershed are located within 2 km of at least two land use sources identified as potentially stressful in our analyses. Our results indicate that a number of land uses and stressors are probably responsible for the decline in native species. However, protection of naturally vegetated riparian corridors may help mitigate some of these effects.

The Freshwater Crayfish Austropotamobius Pallipesin South Tyrol: Heritage Species and Bioindicator

“…Assessing relationships between human land use activities and ecological resources is especially complex in a watershed in which multiple land uses, and interactions among those uses, are likely to be present (DIAMOND et al, 2002). In addition, when only relict populations in a region are present, like in South Tyrol, it is especially difficult to provide necessary correlations between population health and disturbance factors.…”

Urbanization and a threatened freshwater mussel: evidence from landscape scale studies

“…Their loss from lotic systems could seriously affect ecosystem function, as they provide food resources and structure for other macro-invertebrates (Vaughn et al, 2004;Howard & Cuffey, 2006) and influence nutrient cycling (Vaughn et al, 2008). Threats to mussels in the southeastern United States, where they are most diverse, include impoundments, increased agricultural use or urbanization of the watershed (Diamond et al, 2002;Gillies et al, 2003;Gangloff & Feminella, 2007), loss or fragmentation of riparian forest cover (Gagnon et al, 2006;Hopkins, 2009), and pollution (Gangloff et al, 2009).…”

Coal-Mine Hollow Fill and Settling Pond Influences on Headwater Streams in Southern West Virginia, USA

“…Bioassessment procedures have been used to evaluate aquatic systems impacted by environmental disturbances such as timber harvest (Williams, Warren, & Clingenpeel, 2002), industrial discharges (Diamond, Bressler, & Serveiss, 2002), and mine drainages (Soucek, Cherry, Currie, Latimer, & Trent, 2000;Cherry, Currie, Soucek, Latimer, & Trent, 2001;Grout & Levings, 2001;DeNicola & Stapleton, 2002). Research has been conducted on an array of coal mining impacts ranging from stream acidification (Guerold et al, 2000), sedimentation (Bonta, 2000), heavy metal influx (Clements, Carlisle, Lazorchak, & Johnson, 2000), and metals mobilized by acid mine drainage (AMD) (Cherry et al, 2001;Soucek, Schmidt, & Cherry, 2001a).…”