ARS | Publication request: Relationships between water chemistry and fish communities within channelized headwater streams in Indiana and Ohio

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 1, 2008
Publication Date: June 12, 2008
Citation: Smiley, P.C., Gillespie, R.B., King, K.W., Huang, C. 2008. Relationships between water chemistry and fish communities within channelized headwater streams in Indiana and Ohio. American Society of Limnolgists and Oceanographers Summer Meeting. p. 84.

Technical Abstract: Many headwater streams in the midwestern United States were channelized for draining agricultural fields. Agricultural conservation practices are implemented to reduce nutrient and pesticide loadings within these altered streams. The impact of these practices is uncertain because the influence of water chemistry on stream communities is not well understood. We evaluated the relationships between water chemistry and fish communities within channelized headwater streams in Cedar Creek, Indiana and Upper Big Walnut Creek, Ohio. Measurements of water chemistry and fishes have been collected from 20 sites beginning in 2005. Backward selection multiple regression analyses indicated that fish communities were most often correlated with pH and dissolved oxygen and least frequently correlated with alachlor, metolachlor, and nitrate-nitrite. Observed relationships between water chemistry and fish communities were weak, but significant (P < 0.05). The strongest relationship (r2 = 0.44) occurred between percent insectivores and ammonia, soluble reactive phosphorus, total phosphorus, atrazine, water temperature, conductivity, and pH. Our results suggest that fish communities are more strongly correlated with physicochemical characteristics than nutrients or pesticides within channelized headwater streams in Indiana and Ohio.