Spatial and Temporal Distribution of Fishes of the Upper Colorado River, 1987-1995

F. Gelwick, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258

O. Thornton, Ivie Reservoir Field Office, HCR 82, Box 4B, Leaday, Texas 76888

R. Martin and X. Wu, Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843-2258

Collection of fishes from shallow riffle-pool habitats used as foraging sites by the Concho River water snake Nerodia harteri paucimaculata were begun after the establishment of Ivie Reservoir near the confluence of the Concho and Colorado rivers. Fifteen sites (5 each upstream of Ivie Reservoir on the mainstem of the Colorado and Concho Rivers, and 5 downstream of Ivie Reservoir on the mainstem Colorado River) were collected annually. Seven artificial riffle sites (6 upstream and 1 downstream of Ivie Reservoir on the mainstem Colorado River) were collected annually after 1990, and an additional 59 collections were made throughout the upper Colorado River drainage. A total of 39 species from 11 families were collected. A canonical correspondence analysis of sites, species and environmental variables indicates effects of longitudinal position within the drainage, and chloride concentration in water samples. The GIS database for these locations indicates fish community compositions are also related to percentage of land use/cover categories (e.g., reservoirs, strip mines-quarries, scrub-brush-range, and deciduous forest) within these watersheds.

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