Habitat Use, Availability, and Preference for Johnny Darter, White Sucker, Northern Hog Sucker, Common Shiner, and Creek Chub in Streams in Central Wisconsin

File(s)
Date
1989-10Author
Moody, Robert C.
Publisher
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources
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Show full item recordAbstract
I determined habitat use, availability, and preference for
johnny darters (Etheostoma nigrum), white suckers (Catostomus
commersoni), hog suckers (HyPentelium nigricans), common shiners
(Notropis cornutus), and creek chubs (Semotilus atromaculatus)
that I observed using above and under-water techniques, and
collected by electroshocking in eight first to third order
streams in central Wisconsin. Data were stratified into six life
history stages--egg incubation, fry, young-of-the-year, juvenile,
adult, and spawning adult--for each species and into day and
night records, when samples were sufficient for each species-life
stage. Physical habitat use was quantified by measurement of
total depth, fish depth, mean column velocity (MCV), fish nose
velocity (FNV), substrate composition, and kind of cover.
Habitat availability was estimated along with habitat use by
measurement of the same variables (exclusive of fish depth and
FNV) along randomly selected stream channel cross sections.
Preference was calculated by dividing the relative frequency of
use by the relative frequency of availability within an interval
of a habitat variable. Habitat use, availability, and preference
distributional patterns were presented as histograms. I
constructed habitat suitability index curves for data sets having
SO or more observations of habitat use. Utilization, availability,
preference, and conditional preference (i.e., day v. night data)
curves were derived from nonparametric tolerance limits. I
collected habitat suitability criteria for 32 species-life
stages, of which 16 species-life stages had sufficient data for
suitability index (SI) curve development.
I developed a substrate composition index compatible with
the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology that provided numerical
representation for non-adjacent particle size groups (e.g., a
rubble-sand mixture). I quantified bias associated with each
method of aquisition of habitat use data; above water
observations yielded the least biased data relative to underwater
observation and electrofishing. For each species-life stage
having sufficient data, I identified an optimal range (SI= 1.0)
within a preferred range within a used range for each habitat
variable except cover.
Within a species, mean values for total depth, MCV, FNV, and
substrate coarseness increased as fish body length increased from
fry to adult. Habitat used by fry was uniform for several
species. FNV utilization curves were similar for all species-life
stages, exclusive of spawning adults, and tended towards
zero suitability in velocities exceeding 21 cm/sec. FNV
measurements also remained more consistent, among several
habitat use data aquistion methods, relative to other habitat
variables. Habitat use differed for most species-life stages
between day and night. Habitat use varied, to some extent,
among streams for most species-life stages, but habitat
preference did not vary significantly among streams.