HR: 1330h
AN: NB33P-09    [Abstracts]
TI: Springs in Time: Fish Faunal Changes in Oklahoma Springs Over a 20-Year Interval
AU: * Bergey, E A
EM: lbergey@ou.edu
AF: Oklahoma Biological Survey and Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma 111 E. Chesapeake Street, Norman, OK 73019 United States
AU: Weaver, J E
AF: Oklahoma Biological Survey and Department of Zoology, University of Oklahoma 111 E. Chesapeake Street, Norman, OK 73019 United States
AB: Springs face a number of threats affecting water quality, habitat characteristics, and biodiversity. Despite these threats and the occurrence of spring-endemic species, temporal changes in spring biota have been little studied. We compared among-year changes in 22 Oklahoma springs with fish that were sampled in 1981 and 1982, and again in 2001, after 20 years. Although flow reduction from groundwater use is a major threat to springs, we found little evidence of flow impacts in these fish-containing springs. Flow reduction was not a major threat because springs may have been impacted prior to the study and springs containing fish were in areas with low groundwater water use (although some of these springs are threatened by proposed large-scale groundwater sales). Twenty-year assemblage differences were correlated with physical alteration of specific springs and the introduction of fish. These introductions were possible because of alterations that deepened habitats. Between-year variation in spring fish assemblages was affected by movement of species in and out of springs. The distinctive fish fauna in 1982 was correlated with unusually high spring rains and the resultant greater connectivity between springs and streams.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly