Assessing the effects of moderately elevated fine sediment levels on stream fish assemblages
Rogers FR. 2000. Assessing the effects of moderately elevated fine sediment levels on stream fish assemblages. Humboldt State University
A Master of Sciences thesis in Natural Resources, Fisheries from Humboldt State University, California. From the Abstract: "The construction of the Redwood National Park highway bypass in 1989 created an opportunity to study the effect of moderately increased fine sediment on fish assemblages in natural streams. The bypass construction resulted in chronic addition of fine sediment into several tributaries of Prairie Creek and the Klamath River, California, while nearby tributaries remained unaffected. Streams affected by the bypass had higher concentrations of stored sediment within the stream bed than unaffected streams. Winter suspended sediment concentrations ranged from 2 mg/L to 102 mg/L and were also higher in bypass-affected streams than control streams. I examined density, diversity, and growth of native stream fishes within five pairs of affected and control streams during the summer and winter of 1997. Bypass-affected and control streams contained similar densities of fish and similar diversities of vertebrates as measured by the dominance of the most common species. Total salmonid biomass, coho salmon biomass, and cutthroat trout biomass were not well predicted by the concentration of fine sediment in streambeds. Finally, summer-time growth of cutthroat trout in instream enclosures was also similar in bypass-affected and control streams."
- Type
- Academic
- Authors
- Rogers, Frederick
- Date of Issue
- 2000-03
- Publisher
- Humboldt State University
- Units
- REDW
- Keywords
- Aquatic Studies, Bypass project, Coastal Cutthroat Trout, Coho Salmon, Density, Diversity, fish biomass, Fish Studies, Growth, Impacts, Klamath River Basin, Oncorhynchus clarki, Oncorhynchus kisutch, Prairie Creek Basin, Salmonid Species, Sediment, Streams, Survival Rates, Suspended Sediment, Thesis