Impacts of Urbanization on Stream Heabitat and Fish Across Multiple Spatial Scales

摘要

We analyzed the relation of the amount and spatial pattern of land cover with stream fish communities, in-stream habitat, and baseflow in 47 small southeastern Wis- consin, USA, watersheds encompassing a gradient of pre- dominantly agricultural to predominantly urban land uses. The amount of connected impervious surface in the watershed was the best measure of urbanization for predicting fish den- sity, species richness, diversity, and index of biotic integrity (IBI) score; bank erosion; and base flow.