Protocol Methods for monitoring fish communities of Buffalo National River and Ozark National Scenic Riverways in the Ozark Plateaus of Arkansas and Missouri, Version 2.0
Dodd HR, Petersen JC, Justus BG, Bowles DE, Rowell G, Morrison L, Hinsey JA, Williams JM. 2018. Protocol Methods for monitoring fish communities of Buffalo National River and Ozark National Scenic Riverways in the Ozark Plateaus of Arkansas and Missouri, Version 2.0. Natural Resource Report. NPS/HTLN/NRR—2018/1633. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado
Buffalo National River (BUFF), located in north-central Arkansas, and Ozark National Scenic Riverways (OZAR), located in southeastern Missouri, are the two largest units of the National Park Service (NPS) in the Ozark Plateaus physiographic province. The purpose of this report is to provide a protocol that will be used to sample fish communities and collect related water quality, habitat, and stream discharge data within BUFF and OZAR to meet inventory and long-term monitoring objectives. The protocol includes (1) a protocol narrative, (2) supplemental information helpful for implementation of the protocol (in appendices), and (3) standard operating procedures published as separate stand-alone documents. The protocol narrative provides background information pertaining to the rationale of why a particular resource or resource issue was selected for monitoring, information concerning the resource or resource issue of inter-est, a description of how monitoring results will inform management decisions, and a discussion of the linkages between this and other monitoring projects. The standard operating procedures cover preparation, training, reach selection, water-quality sampling, fish community sampling, physical habitat collection, measurement of stream discharge, equipment maintenance and storage, data management and analysis, reporting, and protocol revision procedures. Much of the information in the standard operating procedures was gathered from existing protocols of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Water Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program and the NPS Heartland I&M Network (HTLN) program. Supplemental information that would be helpful for implementing the protocol is included in the appendices of this narrative. This information includes information on fish species known or suspected to occur in the parks, sample sites, sample design, fish species traits, and index of biotic integrity metrics.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Dodd, Hope; Petersen, James; Justus, B.; Bowles, David; Rowell, Gareth; Morrison, Lloyd; Hinsey, Janice; Williams, Jeffrey
- Date of Issue
- 2018-05
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- BUFF , HTLN , NRSS , OZAR
- Keywords
- HTLN Fish Community Protocol