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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbus, Ohio » Soil Drainage Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #291219
Title: Influence of adding small instream wood on fishes and hydrology within channelized agricultural headwater streams in central Ohio

Author
item GATES, ERIC - The Ohio State University
item Smiley, Peter - Rocky

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/4/2013
Publication Date: 2/26/2013
Citation: Gates, E., Smiley, P.C. 2013. Influence of adding small instream wood on fishes and hydrology within channelized agricultural headwater streams in central Ohio. Meeting Abstract. 2013 College of Food Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium, February 26, 2013, Columbus, Ohio. Meeting Abstract.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Large instream wood is well known for its importance in headwater streams because it promotes the development of pool habitat for fishes and provides them with cover from predators during the summer. However, little is known about the influence of small instream wood (diameter < 10 cm, length < 1 m) on fishes and hydrology in channelized agricultural headwater streams (channelized streams) in the Midwestern United States. Understanding the influence of small instream wood on fishes and hydrology can lead to multiple-use management strategies for channelized streams that consider the needs of aquatic animals and agriculture. Our hypothesis was that adding small instream wood would change the fish communities, but not hydrology within channelized streams in the summer. In July 2011, one site containing a treatment and a control pool that both lacked instream wood was selected within four channelized streams in central Ohio. We sampled fishes and measured hydrology in each site weekly for two weeks. We then added four to six small instream wood pieces to each treatment pool and implemented a treatment period of one month where no sampling occurred. After the treatment period ended, fish and hydrology sampling resumed weekly for two weeks within treatment pools containing small instream wood and control pools lacking small instream wood. No differences (p > 0.05) in mean fish abundance, species richness, percent sunfish, and percent minnow occurred between the control and treatment pools before or after the small instream wood addition. Additionally, no differences (p > 0.05) in mean water depth, velocity, wet width, and discharge occurred between the control and treatment pools before or after the small instream wood addition. Our results suggest that adding small instream wood to pools within channelized streams does not influence fish communities or hydrology in the summer.