Fish community monitoring at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site: 2008 & 2011 status report
Dodd HR and Keefe AS. 2013. Fish community monitoring at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site: 2008 & 2011 status report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/HTLN/NRDS—2013/440. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (HEHO) is located in eastern Iowa where the dominate land use consists of row-crop and grassland agricultural practices. A portion of an unnamed tributary of the West Branch of Wapsinonoc Creek, known as Hoover Creek, flows through HEHO. In 2008 and 2011, the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) of the National Park Service (NPS) began monitoring fish communities, physical habitat, and water quality at a downstream reach of Hoover Creek within HEHO. The fish community was found to be diverse, but consisted of eight species moderately tolerant or tolerant to poor water quality and habitat conditions. Relative abundance of fish appeared to increase from 2008 to 2011; however, this finding is an artifact of the higher turbidity in 2008 making collection of smaller-bodied fishes difficult and not due to a true change in fish abundance. Overall, stream integrity was rated as fair (Index of Biotic Integrity score = 31) based on fish community composition. High turbidity, unstable banks, and predominately fine streambed substrates found at Hoover Creek, coupled with the absence of intolerant fish species and a fair IBI score suggest degraded habitat conditions and an impaired fish community.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Dodd, Hope; Keefe, Allison
- Date of Issue
- 2013-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- HEHO , HTLN , NRSS
- Keywords
- Aquatics Fish Communities Monitoring Reports, HTLN Fish Community Brief, HTLN Fish Community Monitoring