

@mastersthesis {6612,
	title = {Fish community dynamics in off-channel habitats of the {Mississippi} {River}, {Pool} 25: {Patterns} across space, time, and hydrologic gradients},
	year = {2004},
	note = {3163043},
	school = {Southern Illinois University at Carbondale},
	type = {phdPh.{D}.},
	address = {Ann Arbor},
	abstract = {Few data exist evaluating the response of fish to water-level management (WLM) in the Upper Mississippi River (UMR). From 1999 to 2001, I studied the fish response to WLM in UMR Pool 25 by examining fish use of recently flooded vegetation during fall. Paired study plots, one vegetated and one experimentally devegetated prior to reflood, were established at four sites in lower Pool 25. Four species had higher ( p {\textless} 0.05) or marginally higher (p {\textless} 0.10) abundance in vegetated plots (spotfin shiner, common carp, bullhead minnow, and western mosquitofish). Significantly more individuals of spotfin shiner, channel shiner, and western mosquitofish {\textless}20 mm were collected in vegetated plots in 1999. Higher, stable water levels in the summer of 2000 resulted in a dramatic (9-fold) increase in the abundance of young-of-year orangespotted sunfish and bluegill. In 2001, sunfish abundance remained high and vegetation provided nursery habitat for late season spawning fishes. The data suggest the fish response to WLM will vary depending on vegetation characteristics, summer hydrology, and location. Effective management and restoration of fish nursery habitats in the UMR is hindered by a general lack of understanding of the nursery habitat requirements of many riverine species. I sampled young-of-year fishes by shoreline seining during late spring/early summer of 2000, 2001, and 2002 at 14 off-channel sites in Pool 25 that represented three habitat types: backwaters, island borders, island sloughs. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and multi-response permutation procedures identified significant structuring ( p {\textless} 0.05) of young fish communities along a gradient from backwaters to island fringes. Community patterns generally corresponded with spawning characteristics of adults, where backwater sites and island fringes primarily provided nursery habitat for species that spawn in lentic and lotic areas, respectively, and island slough were intermediate. Young blue suckers, rarely collected in previous studies, were relatively abundant in island fringe and island slough habitats during early spring sampling. Blue suckers utilized shorelines in proximity to the main channel as feeding areas prior to development into rheophilic juveniles. These data demonstrate the value of conserving or creating heterogeneity (e.g., island construction) within off-channel areas to provide nursery habitat for a diversity of riverine species.},
	keywords = {0472:Zoology, 0792:Aquaculture, 0792:Fish production, Aquaculture, Biological sciences, Cycleptus elongatus, Fish community, Fish production, Hydrologic gradients, Mississippi River, Nursery habitat, Off-channel habitats, Zoology},
	url = {http://search.proquest.com/docview/305121552?accountid=14270},
	author = {Adams, Steven Reid}
}
