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RELATION OF LANDSCAPE-SCALE ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS TO FISH ASSEMBLAGES IN THE UPPER FRENCH BROAD RIVER BASIN, NORTH CAROLINA
Citation:
Rashleigh, B AND P. S. Hampson. RELATION OF LANDSCAPE-SCALE ENVIRONMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS TO FISH ASSEMBLAGES IN THE UPPER FRENCH BROAD RIVER BASIN, NORTH CAROLINA. Presented at American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC, September 1, 1999.
Impact/Purpose:
This research project sets out to design and conduct an assessment of the long-term ecological consequences of alternative management choices. As the first project to be done at this scale using predictive ecological endpoints, we will seek to identify the appropriate components of such an analysis. We will use experience gained in the conduct of this BASE analysis to identify key research and data needs for address, to estimate timing, resource needs, etc., for future analyses. We will extend this analysis beyond previous and ongoing studies in two ways: by incorporating biological endpoints, primarily properties of fish communities, and by introducing the concept of sustainability of ecological state under future scenarios contrasted with the present state of those same ecological resources. Requirements that are identified during the course of this study will permit the recommendation of specific capabilities that should be incorporated in a general modeling system currently under development to support BASE and other environmental assessments. Finally, the analysis is intended to be of value for establishing environmental management choices that will be beneficial and those that would be detrimental to the sustainability of ecological resources of the Albemarle-Pamlico Basin.
Description:
Fish assemblages at 16 sites in the upper French Broad river basin in North Carolina were related to environmental characteristics at the landscape scale, the scale at which management activities and decisions are most likely to occur. Indirect gradient analysis and subsequent regression of environmental variables to gradients identified human land-use activities and associated water quality variables as most important in explaining differences in fish assemblages among sites. Agricultural and urban influences on fish assemblages may differ: agricultural influence was represented primarily as a trophic shift from specialized insectivores to omnivores and generalized insectivores, while a secondary urban influence was reflected in a compositional shift from piscivores to sunfish and suckers and an increase in species richness. Results from this study can be used to improve bioassessment techniques in this basin.