6th Annual Judith Ramaley Celebration of Research and Creative Scholarship
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Poster #10 Fish and Aquatic Invertebrate Community Assessments of Trout Run and Middle Branch Whitewater River 4 Years Post-Flooding Karla Bennett Faculty Mentor: Neal Mundahl Research in summer 2011, 4 years post-flood at 5 sites on the Whitewater River and Trout Run was conducted to measure the health of the fishes and invertebrates. 150-meter reaches were electro-fished at the sites to collect information on the fish population health. At each of the 5 sites, 3 kick samples in fast and slow moving currents were collected for a measure of invertebrate population health. From index of biotic integrity scores, the fish populations go from excellent to fair from the Upper Trout Run reaches down to the Middle Branches of the Whitewater River. For the invertebrate populations, the index of biotic integrity goes from good to poor oppositely from the Middle Branch of the Whitewater River to Upper Trout Run. In conclusion, total biotic integrity scores of invertebrates do not reflect the health of the fish populations; other factors influence population health within the overall scores. |
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