Fish community monitoring at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield: 2006–2016 status report

Dodd, Hope; Williams, Jeffrey

In 2006, fish community, water quality, and physical habitat monitoring began in Wilson’s Creek National Battle-field at Wilson’s Creek, Skegg’s Branch (also known as Schuyler Creek), and Terrell Creek. The purpose of this monitoring is to determine the status and long-term trends in fish community composition and to correlate this community data to water quality and habitat conditions. Prior to initiating our long-term monitoring, previous one-time studies of fish communities in Wilson’s Creek assessed the water quality and biotic integrity of this urban stream (Donegan 1984; Foster 1988; Foster 1989; Petersen and Justus 2005), but little is known about the fish communities or water quality conditions of Skegg’s Branch and Terrell Creek. Based on our data, the fish communities within Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield were found to be diverse. Although water quality has been an issue due to wastewater effluent and runoff from urban areas, Wilson’s Creek maintains high species richness, number of intolerant species, and diversity, resulting in a high biotic integrity rating. However, fish assemblages in Wilson’s Creek did show a large number of anomalies (disease, eroded fins, lesions, tumors, and blackspot parasite) compared to communities in the other two streams sampled. The high quality rating for the fish community in Wilson’s Creek can be misleading because anthropogenic disturbances as well as abiotic factors may explain these findings. Fish communities at Skegg’s Branch and Terrell Creek had a large proportion of darter, sculpin, and madtom species (sensitive to siltation and poor water quality), suggesting that these two smaller tributaries of Wilson’s Creek are in good condition.

Fish community monitoring at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield: 2006–2016 status report

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