Using a Fish Index of Biotic Integrity to Assess Stream Health in the Oil and French Creek Watersheds of Northwestern Pennsylvania
Persistent URL
Author(s)
Goeller, Brandon
Date Issued
May 4, 2010
Abstract
Biomonitoring is often used to assess the net effects of multiple stressors on running water ecosystems. Fish “indices of biotic integrity” (IBIs) have been adapted for use in the French Creek watershed of northwestern Pennsylvania; however, these IBIs have not been evaluated in neighboring watersheds. The purpose of this study was to use the French Creek IBIs to assess the effects of land use on tributaries in the Oil Creek watershed of northwestern Pennsylvania. During the late 1800s, Oil Creek was impacted by intense deforestation and stream habitat degradation associated with oil exploration, whereas French Creek was mainly impacted by agriculture. I predicted that IBI scores would be lower in 2nd to 4th order tributaries of Oil Creek than in tributaries of French Creek of similar size and with similar forest cover because of these differences in “legacy effects” associated with historical patterns of land use. Results show that for a given percent of watershed forest cover, fish species richness is lower in Oil Creek than in French Creek tributaries. This suggests that metric cutoff values will need to be modified to increase the regional utility of the IBI. The results of this study also addressed other between-watershed differences that affect the construction of a regional IBI, including differences in the pool of available species, high forest cover, and stream gradient. Few studies have compared biotic integrity between watersheds with different legacy effects associated with historical differences in land use, a consideration that should be addressed when investigating biotic integrity on a regional level.
Honors
Environmental Science, 2010
First Reader(s)
Wissinger, Scott
Department
Biology
Type of Publication
Senior Project Paper
File(s)![Thumbnail Image]()
Name
2009_10_Goeller_Fish.pdf
Description
Senior Project
Size
2.12 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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