Ecological Recovery of a River Fish Assemblage following the Implementation of the Clean Water Act

Gibson‐Reinemer, Daniel K.; Sparks, Richard E.; Parker, Jerrod; DeBoer, Jason A.; Fritts, Mark W.; McClelland, Michael A.; Chick, John H.; Casper, Andrew F.

doi:10.1093/biosci/bix110

Cited by 38 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Our results and Thomas et al [11] provide evidence that management of watersheds for improved water quality may influence fish assemblages and can be detected at a basin scale. Similar patterns were found for the Illinois River fish assemblage responses to land use and hydrologic alteration, where recovery appeared to result after the Clean Water Act [40].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

“…The commercial fish catch yield from the Illinois River declined drastically following construction of navigation dams and locks in the 1930s, compared to historic catches, likely from combined effects of agriculture and hydrologic alteration [40]. Commercial fishing has also likely affected the composition of freshwater fish assemblages in the Ohio River Basin over the course of the study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Long-term fish assemblages of the Ohio River: altered trophic and life history strategies with hydrologic alterations and landuse modifications

Pyron

Mims

Minder

et al. 2019

Preprint

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17Long-term monitoring of species assemblages provides a unique opportunity to test 18 hypotheses regarding environmentally-induced directional trajectories of freshwater species 19 assemblages. We used 57 years of lockchamber fish rotenone and boat electrofishing survey data 20 collected by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) to 21 test for directional trajectories in taxonomy, trophic classifications, and life history strategies of 22 freshwater fish assemblages in the Ohio River Basin. We found significant changes in taxonomic 23 and trophic composition of freshwater fishes in the Ohio River Basin. Annual species richness 24 varied from 31 to 90 species and generally increased with year. Temporal trajectories were 25 present for taxonomic and trophic assemblages. Assemblage structure based on taxonomy was 26 correlated with land use change (decrease in agriculture and increase in forest). Taxonomic 27 assemblage structure was also correlated with altered hydrology variables of increased minimum 28 discharge, decreased fall rate, and increased rise rate. Trophic composition of fish catch 29 correlated with land use change (decrease in agriculture and increase in forest) and altered 30 hydrology. Altered hydrology of increased minimum discharge, increased fall discharge, 31 decreased base flows, and increased number of high pulse events was correlated with increased 32 counts of herbivore-detritivores and decreased counts of piscivores and planktivores. We did not 33 find directional changes in life history composition. We hypothesized a shift occurred from 34 benthic to phytoplankton production throughout the basin that may have decreased secondary 35 production of benthic invertebrates. This may also be responsible for lower trophic position of 36 invertivore and piscivore fishes observed in other studies. 37 38 3 39 Introduction 40 Anthropogenic threats to freshwater ecosystems are numerous and globally widespread. 41 Rivers are altered by multiple factors including watershed land use, hydrologic alterations, 42 municipal and industrial effluent, and water withdrawals [1]. Conservation of water resources 43 and increased water demands requires understanding historical and current effects of water and 44 land use to help inform potential solutions via restoration or intervention [2]; key to this is the 45 scale at which human activities affect biodiversity, and the patterns detectable across scales. 46 Long-term monitoring data of biotic and abiotic factors, such as fish assemblages, provide an 47 opportunity to test hypotheses regarding how environmental modifications affect the taxonomic, 48 trophic, and life history compositions of aquatic organisms [3,4]. 49 Land use changes from natural ecosystems to those dominated by intense agriculture, 50 deforestation, or urbanization can dramatically alter fish biodiversity [5-7]. Modification from 51 forest, grasslands, or wetlands to tillable agricultural land on a global scale provides numerous 52 benefits to humans. However, these activi...

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 62%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Long-term fish assemblages of the Ohio River: altered trophic and life history strategies with hydrologic alterations and landuse modifications

Pyron

Mims

Minder

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…For pollution, we hypothesize that passage of certain environmental regulations, such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, have improved conditions for biodiversity. For example, native fish populations steadily increased while those for exotic species decreased in Illinois Rivers as a result of the Clean Water Act (Gibson-Reinemer et al, 2017), and the red spruce forest ecosystem of the Central Appalachian Mountains recovered in response to reduced acidic air pollution since passage of the Clean Air Act (Mathias & Thomas, 2018). A perplexing result of our research is the quadratic association between demographic stochasticity occurrence and year of listing ( Figure 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…These efforts include developing models that predict where expansions in problem species geographical ranges will occur based on changing climate conditions, as well as provide the required resources to control problem species. For example, native fish populations steadily increased while those for exotic species decreased in Illinois Rivers as a result of the Clean Water Act (Gibson-Reinemer et al, 2017), and the red spruce forest ecosystem of the Central Appalachian Mountains recovered in response to reduced acidic air pollution since passage of the Clean Air Act (Mathias & Thomas, 2018). For example, we found three threats (overutilization, pollution, and demographic stochasticity) that have decreased in occurrence in the U.S. Overutilization occurrence decreased linearly between 1975 and 2017, while pollution occurrence increased up to the 2000s but then decreased (Figure 2).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal analysis of threats causing species endangerment in the United States

Leu

Haines

Check

et al. 2019

Conservat Sci and Prac

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Understanding temporal variation of threats that cause species endangerment is a key to understand conservation strategies needed to improve species recovery. We assessed temporal variation in the threats to species listed under the United States Endangered Species Act (ESA) as identified by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). Based on initial review of ESA listing decisions and literature, we identified six overarching threat categories: habitat modification, overutilization, pollution, species-species interaction, demographic stochasticity, and environmental stochasticity. We screened listing decision documents to determine threat occurrence (i.e., presence/absence of a given threat in a listing decision) for each threat category for all species listed between 1975 and 2017. We evaluated how the number of threats and specific threat occurrences changed over the past four decades. We found that the number of threats per listing decision increased more than twofold from an average of 1.5 (95% CI: 1.3-1.7) threats in 1975 to 3.7 (95% CI: 3.4-4.0) threats in 2017. Threat occurrence increased for habitat modification, environmental stochasticity and species-species interaction, while it decreased for overutilization since 1975 and for demographic stochasticity and pollution since the mid-2000s. The documented increase in number of threats at time of listing may be due to a growing human population exerting increased pressure on species persistence, improved scientific advancement in understanding factors influencing species endangerment, or prolonged time taken for more recent species to be listed under the ESA. We believe that key federal and state governmental regulations have resulted in a documented decrease in overutilization, demographic stochasticity, and pollution, and we recommend large-scale strategies combined with local planning efforts to address the growing threats of habitat loss, environmental stochasticity, and species-species interaction. K E Y W O R D SEndangered Species Act, environmental regulations, policy, temporal, threats Authors after Haines are listed in alphabetical order

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“…The biodiversity of many river systems has rebounded dramatically concomitant with water quality improvements and habitat rehabilitation over the past 40 years (Gibson‐Reinemer et al, ; Sparks, ; Theiling, Janvrin, & Hendrickson, ). This resilience is seen in gains for a variety of native fishes, freshwater mussels, and waterfowl (Hagy et al, ; McClelland et al, ; Sietman, Whitney, Kelner, Blodgett, & Dunn, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implications of an invasive fish barrier for the long‐term recovery of native fish assemblages in a previously degraded northeastern Illinois River system

Altenritter

Pescitelli

Whitten

et al. 2019

River Research & Apps

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Barriers to fish movement have been used to prevent the spread of invasive fishes but may also limit the movements of native fishes. We evaluated the potential consequences of a proposed barrier on the Illinois River Waterway, meant to inhibit the spread of silver and bighead carps, to the continued recovery of native fishes in the Des Plaines River following water quality improvements. We compared changes in

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Ecological Recovery of a River Fish Assemblage following the Implementation of the Clean Water Act

Cited by 38 publications

References 36 publications

Long-term fish assemblages of the Ohio River: altered trophic and life history strategies with hydrologic alterations and landuse modifications

Long-term fish assemblages of the Ohio River: altered trophic and life history strategies with hydrologic alterations and landuse modifications

Temporal analysis of threats causing species endangerment in the United States

Implications of an invasive fish barrier for the long‐term recovery of native fish assemblages in a previously degraded northeastern Illinois River system

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