Laserfiche WebLink
1724 D. B. OSMUNDSON ET AL. Ecological Applications <br />Vol. 12, No. 6 <br />the same dimensions, covered with water, and the water <br />volume measured. To derive the percentage of substrate <br />G2 mm, five interstitial substrate samples (500 mL) <br />were collected near the Hess samples with a 3 cm di- <br />ameter, clear, PVC, core tube; oven dried in the lab at <br />68°C; and sieve separated into size fractions. Mid-col- <br />umn water velocity was measured at each Hess sample <br />location with a Model 201 portable water current meter <br />(Marsh McBirney, Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA). To <br />derive median substrate particle size (total Dso and Dso <br />of particles >!2 mm), substrate size distributions were <br />quantified from pebble counts (Wolman 1954); one <br />count was made parallel to shore at each run and riffle <br />sampling site in the vicinity of the Hess sampling de- <br />scribed above. <br />Mapping was used to quantify the surface area, with- <br />in each reach, of seven major mesohabitat types (riffles, <br />runs, shoals, backwaters, low velocity, slack water, and <br />vegetated), with two to six possible subtypes. This was <br />done once during base flows of fall 1996. Habitats were <br />drawn in the field on. hard copies of airborne videog- <br />raphy, orthocorrected, and transferred to a GIS base <br />map for interpretation. <br />Additional parameters were measured during a syn- <br />optic survey that immediately preceded each sampling <br />period, and included light extinction, dissolved or sus- <br />pended nutrients, and turbidity. This survey was con- <br />ducted in one day and data were collected at one site <br />within each sample stratum. Light was measured at <br />multiple depths with a model LI-193SA spherical quan- <br />tum sensor (LICOR, Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) that col- <br />lected scattered as well as surface light. Water samples <br />were collected from midchannel at a depth of - 15 cm. <br />One 1-L water sample was split into two parts: one <br />part was filtered in the field with a 0.45-µm mesh type <br />HA Millipore filter for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, and <br />orthophosphorous analyses; the other part remained as <br />a whole-water sample for total nitrogen and total phos- <br />phorous analyses. All water samples were acidified <br />with concentrated sulfuric acid. Time between collec- <br />tion and laboratory analysis varied but was always <br />within holding periods specified in Standard Methods <br />(American Public Health Association et al. 1992). All <br />nutrients were analyzed in the laboratory with a Spec- <br />tronic 301 (Milton Roy Company, Rochester, New <br />York, USA), utilizing a 5-cm cell. Methodologies for <br />nutrient analyses followed Standard Methods. Turbid- <br />ity was measured in situ (midchannel) with a Hydrolab <br />Surveyor 3 (Hydrolab, Austin, Texas, USA). Main- <br />channel temperatures were monitored year-round at <br />seven sites within the study area (strata 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, <br />10, and 11) as part of another study and methods and <br />results were previously reported by Osmundson et al. <br />(1998). <br />Biological parameters <br />Biomasses of periphyton, benthic macroinverte- <br />brates, and benthic detritus were estimated at each riffle <br />and run sample location. Benthic macroinvertebrates <br />were collected at the same five Hess-sample sites de- <br />scribed in the preceding section. All substrate particles <br />above the level of embeddedness were dislodged or <br />rubbed by hand to loosen macroinvertebrates as par- <br />ticles were removed from the Hess sampler for the <br />interstitial void volume analysis described above. In <br />the laboratory, formalin-preserved samples were sorted <br />and dry mass of invertebrates was estimated from dis- <br />placement volumes using family-specific regression <br />equations developed for this study. Detritus, or coarse <br />particulate organic matter (CPOM), collected with the <br />invertebrate samples was oven dried at 68°C and <br />weighed with an analytical balance. <br />Chlorophyll a was used as a relative index to live <br />periphyton biomass (Steemann Nielsen and Jorgensen <br />1962); this was because periphyton samples contained <br />dead tissue, detritus, and deposited silt particles that <br />could not be easily separated. Five cobble-sized rocks <br />adjacent to each Hess sample were selected to provide <br />periphyton samples. Periphyton scraped from a 2.5 cm <br />diameter circle (5 cm2) scribed on each rock was cov- <br />ered in tin foil to exclude light, frozen in the field with <br />dry ice, and stored frozen until analyzed in the lab. <br />Chlorophyll a concentrations were measured with a <br />Model 111 fluorometer (Turner Associates, Palo Alto, <br />California, USA) within 30 d of collection. <br />Electrofishing catch rates were used as an index of <br />relative abundance of main-channel fish species. We <br />assumed these rates were proportionally related to the <br />total fish biomass within a study reach. Only fish ?100 <br />mm in total length (TL) were targeted under the as- <br />sumption that pikeminnow ?550 mm TL require forage <br />items of at least this size (Osmundson et al. 1998). <br />Within each study reach, both shorelines were elec- <br />trofished in a downstream direction with a 5 m long, <br />hard-bottomed, electrofishing boat. In reaches contain- <br />ing rapids, a 5-m rubber raft outfitted for electrofishing <br />was sometimes used. Each craft was equipped with a <br />Coffelt VVP-15 (Coffelt Manufacturing, Flagstaff, Ar- <br />izona, USA) that produced pulsed DC. In strata 7-11, <br />where fish were abundant, two people were required to <br />dipnet stunned fish from the bow of the boat; in strata <br />1-6, where fish were few, only one person was needed <br />to net all fish. Each shoreline within each reach was <br />treated as a separate sample, resulting in six samples <br />per stratum. <br />Netted fish were transferred to one of two live wells <br />on the boat and held until a shoreline sample was com- <br />pleted: fishes from run habitats went in one and fishes <br />from riffles went in the other. Elapsed shocking time <br />(s) through each habitat type (counted on the VVP me- <br />ter) was recorded. Fishes were identified, measured for <br />TL (to the nearest 1 mm), weighed with an electronic <br />balance (to the nearest gram), and released. <br />Adult Colorado pikeminnow densities per stratum <br />were derived from mean annual population estimates <br />(see Osmundson and Burnham 1998 for methods), the