Fish community monitoring at George Washington Carver National Monument: 2006–2016 status report
Dodd HR and Williams JM. 2018. Fish community monitoring at George Washington Carver National Monument: 2006–2016 status report. Natural Resource Data Series. NPS/HTLN/NRDS—2018/1151. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
George Washington Carver National Monument (NM), located in southwest Missouri, is comprised of tallgrass prairie, woodlands, and three small streams: Carver, Harkins, and Williams branches. These park streams may offer important habitat and protection for fish species that have been adversely impacted by land use changes throughout the Midwest. Between 2006 and 2016, the Heartland I&M Network sampled fish communities, water quality, and physical habitat at all three streams within the park. Goals of this long-term monitoring are to deter-mine status and detect trends in fish community composition and to compare these community data to water quality and habitat conditions. Numerous native fish species were found in these streams. Several darter, sculpin, and madtom species that are sensitive to poor water quality and habitat conditions were present, suggesting high water quality in the park. Additionally, low occurrence of fish anomalies or diseases and high biotic integrity scores suggest that the fish populations are diverse and healthy and that streams within the park are in fair to good condition. Harkins Branch had lower biotic integrity scores for most years sampled due to higher number of species tolerant to poor water quality and habitat conditions.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Dodd, Hope; Williams, Jeffrey
- Date of Issue
- 2018-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GWCA , HTLN , NRSS
- Keywords
- HTLN Fish Community Monitoring