Habitat associations of fish assemblages in the Cache River, Illinois

Bouska, Kristen L.; Whitledge, Gregory W.

doi:10.1007/s10641-013-0120-z

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…Small-scale variables important to structuring fish communities are often unavailable at the scale of this study. For example, coarse substrates have been associated with the occurrence of freckled madtom (Bouska & Whitledge, 2014) and in-stream vegetation is often associated with presence of plains topminnow (Fischer & Paukert, 2008b). In general, there appears to be a need for additional study of environmental requirements of warm water, non-game species in order to validate response curves.…”

Section: Model Development and Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evaluation of species distribution models for fourteen native central U.S. fish species

2014

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Environmental change has and will continue to adversely influence aquatic communities. Efforts to model impacts of environmental change on fisheries have largely focused on cold water, commercial, and recreationally valued species, even though warm water, non-game species have important roles in ecosystem services and processes. We developed species distribution models for fourteen warm water fish species native to the central United States and evaluated environmental drivers and predictive performance. We used an ensemble model approach produced by combining forecasts of five single-model techniques. Response plots and variable importance calculations were used to evaluate the influence of individual variables. The predictive performance of the ensemble models was assessed using area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic plot (AUC). AUC values indicate ensemble models performed better than single-model types, suggesting ensemble models are more reliable and applicable for management purposes than single models. Most models were influenced by a mix of climate, land use, and geophysical variables; however, climate variables were the dominant environmental drivers across models. Given the high sensitivity of models to climate and land use, we expect future climate and land use changes to influence distributions.

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Section: Model Development and Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and evaluation of species distribution models for fourteen native central U.S. fish species

2014

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“…These elements collectivity represents the land cover cascade (LCC), a framework used to quantify the transfer of land-cover-disturbance effects to stream biota such as fishes or aquatic invertebrates (Burcher et al 2007). These landscape alterations have been implicated in the altered distributions of aquatic biota across a range of spatiotemporal scales (Cooper et al 2013;Bouska & Whitledge 2014). However, assigning cause to individual landscape alterations is challenging for a number of reasons, including covariation among natural and anthropogenic gradients, multiple mechanisms of change operating simultaneously and in nonlinear fashions, and uncertainty in separating historical and contemporary influences (Allan 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple watershed alterations influence fish community structure in Great Plains prairie streams

Perkin

Troia

Shaw

et al. 2014

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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Stream fish distributions are commonly linked to environmental disturbances affecting terrestrial landscapes. In Great Plains prairie streams, the independent and interactive effects of watershed impoundments and land cover changes remain poorly understood despite their prevalence and assumed contribution to declining stream fish diversity. We used structural equation models and fish community samples from third‐order streams in the Kansas River and Arkansas River basins of Kansas, USA to test the simultaneous effects of geographic location, terrestrial landscape alteration, watershed impoundments and local habitat on species richness for stream‐associated and impoundment‐associated habitat guilds. Watershed impoundment density increased from west to east in both basins, while per cent altered terrestrial landscape (urbanisation + row‐crop agriculture) averaged ~50% in the west, declined throughout the Flint Hills ecoregion and increased (Kansas River basin ~80%) or decreased (Arkansas River basin ~30%) to the east. Geographic location had the strongest effect on richness for both guilds across basins, supporting known zoogeography patterns. In addition to location, impoundment species richness was positively correlated with local habitat in both basins; whereas stream‐species richness was negatively correlated with landscape alterations (Kansas River basin) or landscape alterations and watershed impoundments (Arkansas River basin). These findings suggest that convergences in the relative proportions of impoundment and stream species (i.e., community structure) in the eastern extent of both basins are related to positive effects of increased habitat opportunities for impoundment species and negative effects caused by landscape alterations (Kansas River basin) or landscape alterations plus watershed impoundments (Arkansas River basin) for stream species.

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Fish Community Structure and Diet Responses to Newbury Weirs in a Low-Gradient River

Bonjour

Rantala

Bennett

et al. 2018

Environmental Management

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Restoration projects are often implemented to address specific issues in the environment. Consequences of a restoration project, if any are measured, typically focus on direct changes to the projects focus. However, changing habitat structure likely results in changes to the environment that affect the communities living there. Rock weirs have been used for channel stabilization in many midwestern rivers. Previous research in a southern Illinois river found that weirs benefitted aquatic macroinvertebrate and riparian bird communities by enhancing habitat heterogeneity and insect emergence production. We hypothesized that fishes would also benefit from weirs through enhanced habitat and food availability. We collected fishes in the Cache River in southern Illinois using hand nets, seines, and electroshocking at sites where weirs had been installed and at non-weir sites. Gut contents were identified and individual food items measured. Fish species richness, but not diversity, was higher at weir sites. Fish communities also differed between site types, with benthic feeders characterizing weir sites. Gut content biomass and abundance differed among fish guilds but not between weir and non-weir sites. Fishes from both site types selected for prey taxa predominately found at weirs. Differences between site types were not always captured by univariate metrics, but connecting fish prey to habitat suggests a reach-scale benefit for fishes through increased abundance of favored prey and enhanced prey diversity. Additionally, given the paucity of rocky substrata in the river as a whole, rock weirs enhance fish species richness by providing habitat for less common benthic species.

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Habitat associations of fish assemblages in the Cache River, Illinois

Cited by 4 publications

References 52 publications

Development and evaluation of species distribution models for fourteen native central U.S. fish species

Development and evaluation of species distribution models for fourteen native central U.S. fish species

Multiple watershed alterations influence fish community structure in Great Plains prairie streams

Fish Community Structure and Diet Responses to Newbury Weirs in a Low-Gradient River

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