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ELECTROFISHING EFFORT REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSESSING SPECIES RICHNESS AND BIOTIC INTEGRITY IN WESTERN OREGON STREAMS
Citation:
Reynolds, L., A. T. Herlihy, P R. Kaufmann, S. V. Gregory, AND R M. Hughes. ELECTROFISHING EFFORT REQUIREMENTS FOR ASSESSING SPECIES RICHNESS AND BIOTIC INTEGRITY IN WESTERN OREGON STREAMS. NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF FISHERIES MANAGEMENT. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD, 23:450-461, (2003).
Description:
We empirically examined the sampling effort required to adequately represent species richness and proportionate abundance when backpack electrofishing western Oregon streams. When sampling, we separately recorded data for each habitat unit. In data analyses, we repositioned each habitat unit , while retaining the order of the others. These habitat unit permutations preserved accumulation of assemblage structure dependent on habitat unit order. The median value from these ordered permutations and Monte Carlo simulations guided our recommended sampling length. We developed a rapid protocol to sample sites in four hours and compared it with three more intensive levels of effort. The rapid protocol occasionally underestimated species richness in some cases by missing vagile, cryptic, and rare species; but it usually approximated proportionate abundance as well as more intensive protocols. A stream reach 40 times its mean wetted width was found adequate for representing species richness and proportionate abundance of common species (>1%) in the fish assemblages.