Fish Populations, Following a Drought, in the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes Rivers of KansasDeacon, James E.
Science
Fish Populations, Following a Drought, in the Neosho and Marais des Cygnes Rivers of Kansas
Deacon, James E.
Fish populations; Freshwater fishes -- Kansas -- Population dynamics -- Stocks
The shallow areas in which the shocker was used in 1959 are the
prevalent habitat in the upper Neosho River. The relative abundance of
fishes found in these areas is presented in Table 13. The red shiner was
most abundant and was followed (in decreasing order) by long-eared
sunfish, minnows of the genus _Pimephales_, green sunfish, red-finned
shiner, channel catfish, and stoneroller. Other species combined
comprise less than ten per cent of the population.
Table 13 also shows the variability in relative abundance of different
species among areas that have the same general kind of habitat. The
species composition is similar in all areas. The sample obtained with
rotenone in 1959 is included in Table 13 to show differences in the
fauna of deep, slowly flowing areas and shallower areas with stronger
current. The differences in relative abundance indicate the kind of
habitat that each species is able to utilize most fully.
Golden redhorse and black bullhead were most abundant in large, deep,
quiet pools (5.7 per cent and 32 per cent of the total population)
and were more abundant in Area 5 (3.2 per cent and 7.3 per cent
respectively) than in any of the other shallow areas. Area 5 has greater
average depth, more mud bottom, and less riffle area than areas 1, 3 and
6.
The golden redhorse and black bullhead have specific habitat preferences
that are not evident in the above discussion. My collections indicate
that the golden redhorse prefers deep water having some current, whereas
the black bullhead prefers little or no current.
Species that prevailed in or near riffles were: creek chub,
sucker-mouthed minnow, stoneroller, channel catfish (young-of-the-year
only), flathead (young-of-the-year only), stonecat, slender-headed
darter, and orange-throated darter. Of these species, the sucker-mouthed
minnow, slender-headed darter and orange-throated darter reached their
greatest abundance at Area 3, where the riffle is shallow, slow, and has
a bottom composed of flat limestone rubble.
The riffle at Area 1 is, for the most part, deeper and faster than at
Area 3 and has a bottom composed of gravel and small rocks. The creek
chub, stoneroller, channel catfish (young-of-the-year), flathead
(young-of-the-year), and stonecat reached their greatest abundance in
Area 1. All species that showed a preference for riffles were rare or
absent in Area 5 where no riffle-habitat was sampled. The
riffle-dwelling species that were present in collections made with
rotenone in the deeper pools were taken from the riffle into which
rotenone was introduced.
The river carpsucker, blunt-nosed minnow, fat-headed minnow, channel
catfish (yearlings and two-year-olds), flathead (yearlings and
two-year-olds), green sunfish and long-eared sunfish showed a preference
for shallow, quiet water. All of these species were more common in
collections from Areas 5 and 6 than in collections from other areas.
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