Fish Assemblages of Richland Creek and Keechi Creek Wildlife Management Areas, Texas

Gelwick, F. P., B. Healy, N. Dictson, J. Goff, and T. Lantz, Texas A&M University

These Wildlife Management Areas are located within the Trinity River Drainage in the Post Oak Savannah Ecological Region and contain mostly bottomland hardwood forest. The Areas are state-owned and were purchased by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department with funds provided by the Texas Waterfowl Stamp and from mitigation funds. The acquisition fulfilled the wildlife habitat mitigation obligation for losses resulting from reservoir construction. The areas were purchased primarily for the preservation of bottomland hardwoods, managed for wildlife species and their habitats and to provide quality consumptive and non-consumptive public use of these resources. While waterfowl management is a major focus, these areas also contain a range of aquatic habitats for fishes. To provide a baseline survey for monitoring biodiversity of fishes in these habitats, we took samples in spring, summer and early fall of 1998 and 1999 in Richland Creek WMA, and 1999 in Keechi Creek WMA. Principal habitats included a spring, streams, oxbows, sloughs, swamps, ponds, and diked wetlands. The life histories and trophic guilds for dominant species were used to characterize fish assemblages in each habitat. The spring was characterized by water-column invertivores with equilibrium life histories. Streams contained primarily omnivores, benthic invertivores and water-column invertivores with opportunistic and periodic life histories. Oxbows, ponds, and diked wetlands were dominated by a range of trophic groups, including predators, with periodic and equilibrium life histories. Swamps and sloughs were dominated by omnivores with both periodic and opportunistic life histories. Management of these areas should include consideration of natural flow regimes that maintain the range of habitat types and their natural ecological functions in order to sustain such diverse assemblages of fishes.

Copyright © 1999
Texas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society
Last modified: 03/03/04 04:15:38 PM