Fish Community Monitoring at Tallgrass Prairie NationalPreserve: 2001 – 2008 Trend Report

Dodd, Hope; Morrison, Lloyd; Peitz, David

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR), located in the Flint Hills region of Kansas, was established to protect, preserve, and interpret the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. An important component of tallgrass systems is water quality and quantity and biotic integrity of prairie streams. Due to land use changes contributing to habitat degradation or loss, and poor water quality in prairie streams, many native fish populations have been negatively affected throughout their ranges. TAPR provides some of the least impacted prairie stream habitat remaining in the Midwest. In 2001, an annual fish monitoring program was initiated at TAPR to determine the status and long-term trends in fish community composition, and to correlate this community data to water quality and habitat conditions. Fish communities were sampled at several reaches located in 12streams throughout TAPR from 2001 to 2008. Physical habitat and water quality were collected in conjunction with fish sampling. In general, streams at TAPR have good biotic integrity and provide suitable habitat for a relatively stable native fish community. Fish species richness, community diversity, species abundance, and stream integrity fluctuated within acceptable limits of variability during the eight year sampling period, relative to baselines established from the first three years of data. Most reaches had moderate to high diversity and good stream integrity scores, suggesting that fish communities are healthy and diverse. Topeka Shiners were found at five reaches, although 80%of the shiners were caught in a single reach located in the upper portion of a tributary that lies primarily outside the park boundary. The total number of Topeka shiners caught declined significantly over most time periods evaluated, decreasing from a high of 72 in 2002 to only 1 in2008. The geographical location of the reaches where Topeka Shiners were caught suggests that larger source populations of shiners may exist outside the park boundaries. Exploratory analyses of habitat and water quality variables as predictors of fish community metrics did not produce models with high explanatory power. Variables associated with site dimensions were most commonly included in the models. Habitat variables such as depth and area varied substantially over the sampling period while fish communities were relatively stable across time. This suggests that physical and chemical properties of these prairie streams are dynamic, and the fish communities are adapted to living in this harsh and changing environment.

Fish Community Monitoring at Tallgrass Prairie NationalPreserve: 2001 – 2008 Trend Report

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