Long‐Term Change of Fish Communities in a Polluted Watershed: Does Cleaner Water “Act” on Fishes?

Abstract

Pollution is a threat to lotic fishes that enter streams via point source (PS) and nonpoint source (NPS) pathways. The Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972 and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 reduced PS pollution in the United States, but little information is available concerning the response of fish communities to this legislation. The objectives of this research were to quantify the responses of fishes to the CWA and SMCRA in the Cow Creek watershed of southeastern Kansas, a wadeable stream network that experienced large reductions in PS pollution. Responses were quantified by measuring changes in site occupancy, relative abundance, and species richness across 25 sites sampled in 1963 and again in 2017. Responses were compared among fishes that were intolerant, moderately intolerant, moderately tolerant, and tolerant of pollution using an analysis of deviance coupled with general linear hypothesis testing. We predicted that intolerant fishes would exhibit the most dramatic increases in distribution and abundance and that these changes would be most evident in streams that were directly receiving PS pollution in 1963. However, our predictions were not met, as species tolerant of pollution exhibited greater occupancy, relative abundance, and richness than did intolerant fishes, regardless of time period. Contemporary pH and substrate composition were also quantified and revealed that most streams had recovered from historical acid mine drainage but were dominated by fine substrates. We hypothesized that the limited responses exhibited by intolerant fishes were at least partially attributable to NPS pollution (i.e., sedimentation) resulting from agriculture, which was the dominant land use both historically and currently. We conclude that reductions in both NPS pollution coupled with historical reductions in PS pollution may be necessary to increase the prevalence of intolerant fishes. These management actions may have conservation implications as many intolerant fishes are also imperiled.

The Second Collection Record of Northern Studfish (Fundulus catenatus) from Kansas

“…invertivores occupying low-velocity habitats; Schaefer 2014; Triplett 2014). However, the distribution and abundance of Northern Studfish in the SRS of Kansas appears to be limited at present since we have not detected them during other recent studies (Whitney et al 2019; King et al 2021; King 2022). The low prevalence of Northern Studfish probably limits any negative effects on Blackstripe Topminnow and other native fishes.…”

Coupled fish-hydrogeomorphic responses to urbanization in streams of Columbus, Ohio, USA

“…Nutrient concentrations and chemical water-quality can also have strong effects on stream fish assemblages [34,103,104] but were not a salient driver of fish responses in our study system (Table 4). Direct impacts of water chemistry and nutrient concentrations may be relatively subtle compared to overwhelming impacts of land use and hydrogeomorphic characteristics on habitat availability and food resources in severely altered urban stream systems [105,106]. However, despite evidence that interannual water-quality variability is relatively low at our study reaches ( S2 Fig), our coarse-level analysis limits the inferences we can draw from these results.…”

Ecological river health assessments, based on fish ordination analysis of ecological indicator entities and the biological integrity metrics, responding to the chemical water pollution

“…Deteriorations in water chemistry and physical habitat due to pollution substantially influence the structures of fish communities in both local and spatial groups across wadable rivers and streams (Kalogianni et al 2017 ; Whitney et al 2019 ; Jargal et al 2023 ). Our study provides new insight into how ordination-based site scores of fish community attributes, particularly the composition of FE-based communities, can serve as an effective measure of the ecological health of streams with respect to chemical water quality and changes in riparian land use.…”

“…However, identifying specific FEs within each SC, particularly those sensitive to environmental changes, can provide valuable insights. Among TGs, sensitive species respond to changes in water quality (Kim et al 2010 ; Gao et al 2015 ; Whitney et al 2019 ), and their presence or absence within certain SCs can indicate the degree of chemical health degradation in those areas. Insectivore fishes are often found in environments that support healthy and diverse insect communities (Barbour et al 1999 ; Noble et al 2007 ).…”

“…Water quality deterioration driven by increased nutrient levels and organic matter often triggers declines in ecosystem specialists while fostering an increase in generalist species (Mamun and An 2022 ; Jargal et al 2023 ). Certain fish species or groups, such as sensitive or tolerant species, also serve as indicators of the ecological health of river systems in response to changes in instream water chemistry and riparian land use (Chalar et al 2013 ; Gao et al 2015 ; Whitney et al 2019 ). Thus, changes in fish community composition are a good diagnostic of ecological conditions by indicating functional shifts in aquatic systems under environmental stressors (Larentis et al 2021 ; Gao et al 2015 ; Jargal et al 2022b ).…”