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Title:	Fish-habitat relationships in the streams of Fort Gordon, Georgia
Authors:	Hoover, Jan Jeffrey, 1954- Killgore, K. Jack
Keywords:	Fishes--Habitat--Georgia Fishes--Habitat--Mathematical models
Publisher:	Environmental Laboratory (U.S.)
Series/Report no.:	Technical Report ; EL-99-6.
Abstract:	Abstract: Field studies provided baseline data on fish species composition and abundance at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Four streams were sampled that represented varying levels of anthropogenic impacts: Spirit Creek (most impacted), Sandy Run, Boggy Gut, and Brier Creek (least impacted). Field surveys of juvenile and adult fishes and physical habitat were performed quarterly Dec 1995 to Oct 1996; 1-4 collections were made at 19 stations for a total 66 samples. Forty-four species of fishes were collected (or observed) representing approximately half of all native fishes known from the Savannah River drainage. Ichthyofauna was dominated taxonomically by sunfishes (10 species) and minnows (9 species), and to a lesser extent by darters and catfishes (6 species each). Abundant species included golden shiner, dusky shiner, bluegill, brook silverside, and blackbanded darter. Fishes of special status included sailfin shiner, mud sunfish, Savannah darter, and sawcheek darter. Bluebarred pygmy sunfish collected from Boggy Gut constitute the only confirmed collection of this species from the western Savannah River drainage and from the state of Georgia. Fish communities, and physical habitat, were similar in Sandy Run and Boggy Gut; Spirit Creek was faunistically and physically dissimilar from the other streams. Diversity (Shannon heterogenity function, H') was negatively correlated with turbidity, positively correlated with water depth. Abundance of 4 common species was negatively correlated with turbidity. Spirit Creek, which experiences severe erosion and is extensively impounded, is turbid, shallow, and high in conductivity; fish densities are low and the community depauperate. Boggy Gut, which experiences minor erosion and is not impounded, is characterized by water that is clear, deep, and low in conductivity; fish densities are high and multiple measures of diversity (H', observed number of species, estimated number of species) were consistently higher than for any other stream. A man-made structure in Boggy Gut created a speciose, artificial backwater-channel system. Similar structures deigned to reduce erosion could create habitat for many species that are currently rare or have restricted distributions in or around Fort Gordon.
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/11681/10080
Appears in Collections:	Technical Report