HR: 09:15h
AN: NB41F-04 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Fish and Invertebrate Assemblages along Hydraulic and Land Use Gradients in the San Jacinto River - Coastal Perspectives on Instream Flow and Habitat Protection.
AU: * Gelwick, F
EM: fgelwick@tamu.edu
AF: Texas A&M University, 2258 TAMUS, College Station, TX 77843 United States
AU: Herbert, M
AF: Michigan DNR, Lansing Michigan,
AU: Healy, B
AF: US Forest Service, 701 N. 1, Lufkin, TX
AU: Healy, B
AF: US Forest Service, Colorado,
AU: Peterson, D
AF: US Forest Service, 701 N. 1, Lufkin, TX
AU: Webb, M
EM: fgelwick@tamu.edu
AF: Texas Parks and Wildife, Bryan, TX
AB: The San Jacinto River system lies just east of Houston, Texas in the Coastal Plains. The watershed is bounded on the north primarily by rural and agricultural land, on the east by the Sam Houston National Forest (SHNF), and on the west by the city of Houston. The SHNF is made up of fragmented forest imbedded in a matrix of rural farm land and oil and gas development that leads to increased nutrient supplies and unexpected brine spills into streams of the East Fork San Jacinto. Two major impoundments, Lake Conroe on the upper West Fork of the San Jacinto, and Lake Houston on the main river below the East Fork, were constructed primarily to supply water to the Houston Metropolitan area. A valuable fishery exists in Lake Conroe, however off-channel gravel dredging upstream of Lake Houston appears to have increased erosion and led to turbid river conditions. This has a major influence on the ecosystem, such that the fishery in Lake Houston is less productive than that of Conroe, and the level of chemical treatment to flocculate suspended silt and provide potable water is unattainable without exceeding permitted limits for flocculants. This has repercussions to other watersheds. Coastal reservoirs are being built to capture presently unallocated water during high-flow events, and water transfer projects from other drainages are being built or planned in order to provide water to Houston. Solutions to such problems will require cooperation among stakeholders from a range of disciplines. We present this small coastal system as a model for the complex direct and indirect effects on coastal river systems that have not only ecological but major economic and human health impacts.
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly