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The purpose of this study was to compare catch characteristics of two commonly used fish sampling gears. This comparison provides information on which to base decisions about deployment of sampling gear and interpretion of data from localized historical sampling. A comparison of fish catch was made between a 10.7-m bag seine and a mini fyke net (MFN) in Upper Mississippi River Pool 13. The MFNs were found to capture a higher number of individuals and to have a higher species diversity than the seine. Comparisons of family catches between the MFN and the seine revealed that the two gear types do not catch family groups in similar proportions (X2 = 117.6 with 5 df, P < or = 0.05). Because MFNs can be set in nearly...
The natural Upper Mississippi River (UMR) and its tributaries flowed and meandered freely across large floodplain landscapes. Processes such as flooding, erosion, and sedimentation were powerful natural forces that shaped and maintained some floodplain forest communities. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the UMR and its floodplain have been modified by navigation structures and agriculture. As a consequence of human modifications, a large portion of the UMR floodplain is no longer periodically inundated and the hydrologic patterns in the river, as well as on the floodplain, have changed. In general, agriculture and urban development have greatly reduced floodplain forest acres, especially in river reaches...
The modern-day lower Illinois River flows within a greatly oversized valley formed by an old course of the Mississippi River and glacial outwash events. As a result, the section of the Illinois from its mouth near Grafton to Henry, Illinois is characterized as a low-gradient, aggrading bed stream with large backwater areas. Sedimentation in the river threatens to convert the system from one of river/backwater areas to one of channel/marshes. The sediment budget of Peoria Lake, a major backwater lake along the river, includes input and output through the Illinois River and inputs from several small direct tributaries. Results after two-year monitoring of these small tributaries indicate that they are a significant...
Erosion and sedimentation are natural processes that cannot be stopped or eliminated entirely. Both processes have been accelerated by human intervention. According to the Illinois State Water Plan Task Force report published in 1984, erosion and sedimentation is the major critical issue in water resources facing the State of Illinois. The Illinois River basin drains about 44 percent of the State of Illinois. Most backwater lakes along the Illinois River have lost about 72 percent of their original capacity, and sediment has already filled in some of these lakes. This excessive rate of sedimentation has reduced the ecological and recreational value of most lakes along the river, making sedimentation the most difficult...
Notropis volucellus was described in 1864 and underwent a confusing taxonomic synonymy with Notropis blennius. By the 1930s, N. volucellus was recognized as a full species with three subspecies. The subspecies N. v. wickliffi was described in 1931 but was not generally recognized as a full species until 1991. Notropis volucellus is widely distributed in the Mississippi River drainage, where it may be found in large creeks and rivers. Notropis wickliffi inhabits large Midwestern rivers from Louisiana to Wisconsin to Pennsylvania. In the Upper Mississippi River, N. volucellus and N. wickliffi occur sympatrically. Biologists with the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) initially identified N. wickliffi as...
The polar-orbiting Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) was evaluated as a means of detecting and measuring surface water temperatures of selected Pools of the Upper Mississippi River System. In summer 1994 Pools 4, 7, and 8 were monitored and, despite heavy cloud cover and fog, useful results were obtained. Satellite mean temperatures were within about 1 Celsius degree of in situ temperature means for nine observation dates for the three pools. A split window procedure, combining the radiance of thermal infrared bands 4 and 5, greatly improved the accuracy of temperature estimates. Routine temperature monitoring could become a reality when some of the logistical problems encountered in this study are...
Widespread decline of Vallisneria americana Michx. and other submersed aquatic species occurred in portions of the Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) during 1988 1991. These declines prompted study efforts by the LTRMP to better understand factors potentially contributing to the declines. One likely factor limiting growth is nitrogen (N) availability. In order to sustain plant growth over time, N supplies to the sediments need to be replenished as they become depleted due to plant uptake and diffusional losses. During periods of prolonged low flow hydraulic conditions, the availability of N in backwaters of the UMR may limit the productivity of Vallisneria and other species of rooted macrophytes. In this study,...
The Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) completed 2,723 collections of fishes from stratified random and permanently fixed sampling locations in six study reaches of the Upper Mississippi River System during 1995. Collection methods included day and night electrofishing, hoop netting, fyke netting (two net sizes), gill netting, seining, and trawling in select aquatic area classes. The six LTRMP study reaches are Pools 4 (excluding Lake Pepin), 8, 13, and 26 of the Upper Mississippi River, an unimpounded reach of the Mississippi River near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the La Grange Pool of the Illinois River. A total of 59–72 fish species were detected in each study reach. For each of the six LTRMP study...
Aquatic vegetation of the Upper Mississippi River System is monitored as part of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program. This report summarizes the 1993 effort of monitoring submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) along permanently established transects in vegetated locations within certain LTRMP study reaches, specifically Pools 4, 8, 13, and 26 of the Upper Mississippi River and La Grange Pool of the Illinois River. Data are collected during two sampling windows, mid-May through mid-June, and mid-July through August. Fifteen species of SAV were found along transects during the 1993 season. The greatest number of species found (12) was in Pool 4 and the fewest number found (2) was in Pool 26. Coon's tail and sago...
An experiment to improve ecological conditions while maintaining a 9-foot (2.74-m) navigation channel was continued in 1995 and 1996 on the three pools of the Upper Mississippi River managed by the St. Louis District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Water levels were held from 1 to 3 feet (0.3 to 0.9 m) lower than maximum regulated elevations at the dam from about mid-June through July in Pools 24 and 25 and Melvin Price Pool. Water levels were then gradually raised as discharge allowed. Vegetation was surveyed along an elevational gradient in eight areas in 1995 and six areas in 1996. Seven plant genera were identified in 1995 and five genera in 1996. Amaranthus spp. (pigweed), Cyperus spp. (chufa), Echinochloa spp....
Aquatic vegetation was investigated in five navigation pools in the Upper Mississippi River System using a new protocol named “stratified random sampling” or SRS protocol for the first time in 1998. The five pools were Pools 4, 8, 13, and 26 of the Upper Mississippi River and La Grange Pool of the Illinois River. The results on submersed aquatic vegetation and rooted floating–leaf aquatic vegetation were summarized in this report. The percent frequencies of submersed aquatic vegetation in shallow water areas (≤ 3 m deep at flat-pool condition) in the five pools were 36.6%, 47.6%, 42%, 6.1%, and 0%, respectively. The aquatic area strata that were directly influenced by the flow in the main channel, such as the main...
Evaluations of Long Term Resource Monitoring Program sampling designs for water quality, fish, aquatic vegetation, and macroinvertebrates were initiated in 1999 by analyzing data collected since 1992 in six trend analysis areas. Initial emphasis was placed on evaluating statistical power to detect change from one year or sampling interval to the next, and on determining what spatial, methodological, or target variable redundancies existed in the data sets. Power to detect change was evaluated at halved, present, and doubled levels of effort. Power to detect change for different variables varied widely and was greatly influenced by sample size and for species by their frequency of occurrence. Power for detecting...
Otoliths and other calcified structures have been used to age and determine growth rates of fish from a variety of habitats. Sagittal otoliths were removed from fishes representing five species from La Grange Pool of the Illinois River for age determination. Species collected included largemouth bass (Micropterus salmoides), black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), white bass (Morone chrysops), and freshwater drum (Aplodinotus grunniens). Common univariate techniques were used to analyze the significance of spatial and temporal variation in growth and back-calculated mean length-at-age for all five species. For largemouth bass, black crappie, and bluegill, age-frequency distributions...
Asian carp (Cyprinidae) are among the most invasive fishes in North America, but assessment tools for evaluating stock structure have not been established. Thus, we used data from national and international published reports or manuscripts to develop standard length categories for four species of Asian carp. Due to the similarities in maximum reported size for Bighead Carp Hypophthalmichthys nobilis and Grass Carp Ctenopharyngodon idella, we propose the following standardized length categories for those two species: stock = 30 cm, quality = 54 cm, preferred = 68 cm, memorable = 89 cm, and trophy = 111 cm. Proposed Black Carp Mylopharyngodon piceus lengthcategories are stock = 40 cm, quality=72 cm, preferred=90 cm,...
Floodplain forests have historically been resilient to the effects of flooding because the tree species that inhabit these ecosystems regenerate and grow quickly following disturbances. However, the intensity and selectivity of ungulate herbivory in floodplains has the potential to modify the community-level effects of flooding by delaying forest recruitment and leaving sites vulnerable to invasive species. We established a series of exclosures along an elevation gradient in an actively recruiting floodplain forest along the Upper Mississippi River prior to three large-magnitude flood events. Pre-flood browsing by Odocoileus virginianus (white-tailed deer) ranged from 20% to 85% of all available stems, and reduced...
The Environmental Management Technical Center stores point-sampled data for fisheries, water quality, and invertebrates in a relational database management system. These component data are collected at fixed and random sites in each of the key Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) study Pools: 4, 8, 13, 26, and the open river reach on the Mississippi River; and the La Grange Pool on the Illinois River. While the geographic locations of these data are also collected and stored, the tools to automate the integration of these data with spatial data had not previously been developed. A need existed for an application that would facilitate spatial subsetting and visualization of the distribution of sites meeting...
The relative extent of generalist or specialist resource use strategies is an important question in ecology. A community dominated by specialist strategies suggests a high level of interspecific competition for resources, resulting in the evolutionary development of isolating mechanisms between species (e.g., resource specialization to avoid and/or outcompete other species). A community dominated by generalist strategies suggests less interspecific competition for resources, allowing many taxa to utilize the same resources. In stream systems, generalist food habits are a common strategy among primary consumers, but little is known about resource assimilation strategies (resources incorporated into tissue growth)....
The Environmental Management Technical Center hosted the first Upper Midwest Gap Analysis Workshop to initiate the coordination and implementation of Gap Analysis in the states of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Presently, Gap Analysis projects are being completed on a state-by-state basis, depending on level of interest and need by each state. Because Gap Analysis provides a standardized method and format, as state projects are completed the data can be edge-matched with adjacent states to reveal actual patterns of biodiversity at scales relevant to both the magnitude of present-day changes and the multiple levels of biological organization. Gap Analysis products are being used by state and local governments,...
In 1989 and early 1990, biologists began reporting apparent declines in macroinvertebrate densities at specific Upper Mississippi River System sites. The Environmental Management Technical Center hosted a one-day workshop on May 30, 1990, to promote an exchange of current information about Upper Mississippi River System macroinvertebrates, and to review and document any observations that had been made. Observations of declines in fingernail clam populations, over varying periods of time, were reported for navigation Pools 8, 9, and 19 by workshop participants. Large numbers of dead fingernail clams, but no live specimens, were discussed at the workshop included reduction in suitable habitat; toxic substances in...
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