I am very excited to receive this grant from NFC. My project will explore the relationship between changing land use and stream ecosystems in southern Appalachian watersheds. Watershed alterations are known to affect biotic communities, often causing the displacement of native fishes. Historically, agriculture has had a negative impact on stream ecosystems while today many of these agricultural landscapes are being developed for housing. Watersheds surrounding Asheville, North Carolina contain many areas undergoing this transition, providing an excellent opportunity for exploration. I will compare the biotic, physical, and chemical characteristics of agriculture streams and streams affected by rural development.

Streams in this area, particularly French Broad River tributaries, historically supported many interesting native fishes. Of course, impacted streams do not reflect healthy communities.Mostly I am finding more tolerant species and invasives. A typical assemblage might include some combination of Central stoneroller (Campostoma anomalum), Blacknose dace (Rhinichthys atratulus), Banded sculpin (Cottus bairdi), Bluegill and Green sunfish (Lepomis sp.), Whitetail shiner (Cyprinella galactura), Warpaint shiner (Luxilus coccogenis), River chub (Nocomis micropogon), Creek chub (Semotilus atromaculatus), Fantail darter (Etheostoma flabellare), White sucker (Catostomus commersoni), and Northern hogsucker (Hypentelium nigricans).

I have located ten research watersheds; six agricultural watersheds (rowcrop) and historic agriculture watersheds that are currently being developed. Watersheds are of comparable drainage area, geology, and slope and will be represented by 100-m reaches at the most downstream boundary of each watershed. Sampling for fish, macroinvertebrates, and geomorphology will occur within each reach.

Fish were sampled using backpack electrofishing during August of this year (2002) and will be sampled again next summer. Macroinvertebrates will be collected during two spring surveys (2003-2004). Geomorphology, including channel morphology, substrate composition, and suspended sediment concentration will be completed several times during a two-year period. Water chemistry, including pH, nitrate, phosphate, hardness and conductivity will be measured during geomorphology surveys.

After quantifying land use using a GIS I will associate land use with biotic, physical, and chemical parameters. I anticipate two possible results. It is likely that developing sites will be more impacted than agriculture sites due to increased sediment input. It has also been suggested that historic agriculture continues to impact southern Appalachian streams for at least 50 years. It could be that developing areas do not differ significantly from agricultural streams. Regardless, I predict that sedimentation will be a driving force affecting fish and macroinvertebrate communities in both agriculture and developing watersheds.

Funds from the Native Fish Conservancy will assist with travel to research watersheds in Buncombe, Madison and Henderson counties and to purchase a depth integrated sediment sampler.

Stream ecosystem responses to suburban development

The George and Sylvia Becker award I received from the Native Fish Conservancy has enabled me to thoroughly sample fishes from disturbed streams in western North Carolina. Twelve study streams were sampled twice for fishes along a 100-m reach providing information regarding the fish assemblages responding to agricultural and suburban land uses. While fishes are one of the response variables I am measuring, I have been working on quantifying land cover and physical stream responses to land cover. However, biotic responses, including fish and macroinvertebtrate assemblages, will be the capstone summary of my work.

Although I haven’t focused my efforts on quantifying fish responses to disturbance land cover just yet, I have observed some very interesting trends. As expected, I did not collect the dizzying array of potential endemic, and arguably some of the coolest, fishes potentially located in Tennessee River drainages. Although my study streams, which are 2nd – 3rd order tributaries of the French Broad River, which joins the Holston near Knoxville, TN to form the outrageously speciose Tennessee River, there was still potential to find some of the ‘golden’ species we all love. Most of the fishes I collected were tolerant or moderately tolerant species apparently able to complete their life histories in streams impaired by land-cover disturbance. I presume that these tolerant assemblages result from sedimentation, channel geomorphology, and, ultimately, habitat limitations resulting from changes to watershed hydrology due to deforestation, agriculture, and suburbanization.

Streams were dominated by a few notable cyprinids including the Saffron shiner, Warpaint shiner, Creek chub, Whitetail shiner, Blacknose dace, and, of course, Central stonerollers. Catostomid representatives included Northern hogsuckers and White suckers, which were very common. Game fish were relatively uncommon and included the lowly Bluegill, Pumkinseed, and Rainbow trout stocked for recreation, often by resident landowners. The Mountain brook lamprey was an interesting find, occurring in some of the larger streams and very beautiful to see swimming on a sunny day. The most interesting occurrence was found very far upstream in Hooper's creek, which is affected by both suburban and agricultural land-cover, immediately following a large storm. I collected one mature specimen of Moxostoma erythrurm, the Golden redhorse. I was surprised to see such a giant flash under the probe of my Smith-Root backpack shocker and quickly educated my technicians as to the value of such a beast, showing them his v-shaped papillose lips, evolved for food acquisition.

Despite the rare occurrence of such gems as the Golden redhorse, streams generally contained assemblages that are known to be tolerant of disturbance. However, fish diversity, or taxa richness, was higher than undisturbed streams of the area. This relationship has been shown for many disturbed streams of the southern Appalachians and is very interesting. Researchers, myself included, believe this is a result of intermediate disturbance whereby richness actually increases. In extremely disturbed streams, such as heavy urbanized areas, diversity will eventually decreased from undisturbed conditions, but in moderately disturbed areas we often see a richness increase due to the heterogeneity of substrates, channel forms, and habitats. While agricultural streams are indeed heavily sedimented, they also reflect an increasing array of potential niches, which are invaded by new species, thus increasing the apparent diversity of the system. However, this diversity reflects an increased number of tolerant taxa and should NOT be considered a good thing. What we are observing in my study and others is the invasion of disturbed systems by tolerant fishes able to spawn in disturbed substrates. Coupled with this observation, of course, is the disappearance of sensitive species, which leads to a decrease in FUNCTIONAL diversity of systems. It is this type of diversity, that is, diversity of spawning habits and feeding habits, that contributes to ecosystem health and that is impaired by detrimental land-cover types.

I am finishing up quantification of physical stream responses now, and should publish this work before the end of the year. My final dissertation chapter will examine biotic responses and will likely appear in the scientific literature in 2005 or 2006. Without the help of the Native Fish Conservancy, I would not have been able to complete such a thorough analysis of fishes in these study streams. I am forever in your debt and plan on making a lifelong commitment to the organization and to our buddies, the fishes.