Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Freshwater Fish Assemblages in a Small Coastal Tributary of Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana

Abstract

Hurricane Katrina struck southeastern Louisiana on 29 August 2005 and thereby created an opportunity to examine the effects of a catastrophic storm on fish assemblages in a coastal stream. Bayou Lacombe is a small (46.1 river kilometers), primarily freshwater stream that drains into the northeastern portion of Lake Pontchartrain, a large oligohaline estuary located north of New Orleans. In summer 2005 (prior to the hurricane), three upstream and three downstream reaches of Bayou Lacombe were surveyed by electrofishing. These same six reaches were resurveyed in the summer of 2006 to assess the effects of the hurricane on fish assemblages. There were significant changes in fish assemblages at the downstream and upstream reaches. At the downstream reaches, centrarchid species such as bluegill Lepomis macrochirus, warmouth L. gulosus, and redspotted sunfish L. miniatus increased in abundance after the hurricane, as did inland silverside Menidia beryllina and striped mullet Mugil cephalus, both estuarine‐dependent species. At the upstream reaches, longear sunfish L. megalotis decreased after the hurricane and weed shiners Notropis texanus, goldstriped darters Etheostoma parvipinne, and warmouth were absent from posthurricane samples. Principal components and BEST analyses showed that differences in dissolved oxygen between years were related to fish assemblage changes in the upstream reaches. Salinity and temperature were associated with fish assemblage changes in the downstream reaches. Similar significant changes could occur in other coastal streams prone to increased hurricane activity.

Effect of Cyclone Aila on estuarine fish assemblages in the Matla River of the Indian Sundarbans

“…The marked decrease in salinity soon after the cyclone due to the heavy and prolonged rain shifted the composition of fish assemblages of the Matla River with higher abundance of freshwater species such as Mystus gulio and Glossogobius giuris. The result corroborated with previous reports (Paperno et al 2006, Vrancken & O'Connell 2010.…”

Acute Physicochemical Effects in a Large River-Floodplain System Associated with the Passage of Hurricane Gustav

“…Consequently, large nonstorm related fish kills are typically not experienced during the ARB flood pulse. Conversely, acute hurricane-associated reductions in DO can result in extensive fish mortality (Tabb and Jones 1962;Knott and Martore 1991;Tilmant et al 1994;Mallin et al 1999;Mallin et al 2002;Burkholder et al 2004) and lead to observed changes in fish community abundance and composition (Greenwood et al 2006;Paperno et al 2006;Stevens et al 2006;Van Vrancken and O'Connell 2010). Because of rapid oxygen decline rates (4.32 mg/L/day to hypoxia then 0.48 mg/L/day to near anoxia), we observed near anoxic conditions at all 16 sample stations less than a week (0.23 mg/L mean DO concentration, Fig.…”

“…Because of the difficulty in predicting the landfall of a hurricane, researchers often rely on variations in long-term organismal monitoring programs (Stevens et al 2006) or inter-annual changes in biogeochemical cycles (Paerl et al 2001) to assess both temporary and longer-term impacts associated with large-scale storms. Although multiple studies have documented storm-related shifts in the density, distribution, and composition of various aquatic biota, such as benthic macrofauna (Balthis et al 2006;Poirrier et al 2008), decapods (Knott and Martore 1991), fishes (Greenwood et al 2006;Paperno et al 2006;Stevens et al 2006;Van Vrancken and O'Connell 2010), and aquatic plants (Havens et al 2001;James et al 2008;Jin et al 2011), most studies do not have real-time environmental data directly associated with passage of the storm. Further, although considerable research has addressed storm-related impacts on ecosystem-level physical processes such as deleterious nutrient cascades (Paerl et al 2001) and episodic hypoxia events (Stevens et al 2006), most hurricane related studies have chronicled conditions in brackish systems.…”

Long‐term climate and hydrologic regimes shape stream invertebrate community responses to a hurricane disturbance

“…Resh et al., 1988), as well as redistributes flora and fauna (e.g. van Vrancken & O'Connell, 2010). While major flow disturbances are well‐studied in stream ecosystems, there are relatively few studies of hurricane impacts on stream communities and even fewer investigations focused on evaluating disturbance effects along an aridity gradient.…”