Fish Communities and Their Relation to Environmental Factors in the Kanawha River Basin, West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina, 1997-98.

摘要

Stream size and zoogeography affected species composition and relative abundance of fish communities more than water-quality effects of land uses among the 21 sites sampled and in West Virginia and Virginia. Most commonly-used fish metrics based on counts of species were significantly greater in sites downstream from Kanawha Falls (an important barrier to fish movement) than in sites upstream from Kanawha Falls. Commonly used metrics based on proportions of the fish community belonging to trophic or tolerance guilds were not significantly different upstream and downstream from Kanawha Falls. Variance in some widely used fish metrics was greater among multiple reaches sampled within stream segments than among all sites.