Ecological Responses to Trout Habitat Rehabilitation in a Northern Michigan Stream |
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Authors: | Emma J Rosi-Marshall Ashley H Moerke Gary A Lamberti |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Biological Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556-0369, USA;(2) Present address: Biology Department, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N. Sheridan Road, Chicago, IL 60626, USA;(3) Present address: Biology Department, Lake Superior State University, 650 W. Easterday Avenue, Sault Ste., Marie, MI 49783, USA |
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Abstract: | Monitoring of stream restoration projects is often limited and success often focuses on a single taxon (e.g., salmonids),
even though other aspects of stream structure and function may also respond to restoration activities. The Ottawa National
Forest (ONF), Michigan, conducted a site-specific trout habitat improvement to enhance the trout fishery in Cook’s Run, a
3rd-order stream that the ONF determined was negatively affected by past logging. Our objectives were to determine if the habitat
improvement increased trout abundances and enhanced other ecological variables (overall habitat quality, organic matter retention,
seston concentration, periphyton abundance, sediment organic matter content, and macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity)
following rehabilitation. The addition of skybooms (underbank cover structures) and k-dams (pool-creating structures) increased
the relative abundance of harvestable trout (>25 cm in total length) as intended but not overall trout abundances. Both rehabilitation
techniques also increased maximum channel depth and organic matter retention, but only k-dams increased overall habitat quality.
Neither approach significantly affected other ecological variables. The modest ecological response to this habitat improvement
likely occurred because the system was not severely degraded beforehand, and thus small, local changes in habitat did not
measurably affect most physical and ecological variables measured. However, increases in habitat volume and in organic matter
retention may enhance stream biota in the long term. |
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Keywords: | Salmonidae Restoration Organic matter Macroinvertebrates Periphyton |
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