Relation of fish community composition to environmental and land use factors in part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, 1995-97
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Abstract
Fish communities in the Upper Mississippi River Basin have been affected by changing environmental and land-use factors. Fish communities in small streams in agricultural and urban basins were compared to the fish community in a relatively undisturbed forested basin. In small streams, nutrient inputs from fertilizer, habitat modification from channelization, hydrologic modification from dams and tile drains, and increased water temperatures from loss of riparian shading have contributed to producing a change in fish community composition. In the large rivers, some of the changes that have occurred from sites upstream to downstream of the Twin Cities metropolitan area are primarily caused by the environmental effects of dams constructed as part of the lock and dam commercial navigation system. Although some of the differences upstream and downstream of the Twin Cities metropolitan area are due to zoogeographic variability, the major changes in the downstream community are shifts to more lentic species, species with higher thermal tolerance, and more planktivorous species. These changes are an extension of the changes observed in the small streams due to increased nutrients, increased water temperatures, and habitat alteration.
Study Area
| Publication type | Report |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | USGS Numbered Series |
| Title | Relation of fish community composition to environmental and land use factors in part of the Upper Mississippi River Basin, 1995-97 |
| Series title | Water-Resources Investigations Report |
| Series number | 99-4034 |
| DOI | 10.3133/wri994034 |
| Year Published | 1999 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | U.S. Geological Survey |
| Publisher location | Mounds View, MN |
| Contributing office(s) | Minnesota Water Science Center |
| Description | vi, 32 p. |
| Country | United States |
| State | Minnesota |
| Other Geospatial | Upper Mississippi River Basin |
| Online Only (Y/N) | N |
| Additional Online Files (Y/N) | N |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |