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4 <br />Results <br />Species composition and relative abundance <br />A total of 674,261 fish composed of 17 different species were collected during the study <br />period (species list, appendix, Table A2). Five species were native, the remainder were non-native. <br />The most common species collected were three non-native cyprinids (NNC); red shiner (Cyprinella <br />lutrensis), sand shiner (Notropis stramineous) and fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) (Table <br />1). These three species comprised an average of 79.8% of the total number offish collected in the <br />upper section, and 98.6% in the lower section. They were fairly evenly distributed, with red shiner <br />most abundant in 1992 and 1993, and sand shiner most abundant in the last three years. Other non- <br />native species were collected sporadically and none made up a significant proportion of the total <br />except in the upper section, in the summer and fall of 1995. Mosquitofish (Gambusia a~nis) and <br />green sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) occurred in greater abundance, as a result of prolonged flooding <br />of the Moab sloughs (Scott E. Matheson Wetlands Preserve), at RM 60 to 64. <br />In.the lower section, Colorado squawfish were usually the most abundant of the native fishes. <br />In the upper section, native fish relative abundance was more variable. Native fishes, mostly bluehead <br />sucker (Catostomus discobolus), flannehnouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) and speckled dace <br />(Rhinichthys osculus), reached their highest density in the summer of 1993 in both sections. Native <br />fishes were most abundant in early summer, soon after reproduction occurred. Due to continued <br />production of NNC throughout the summer, and mortality and habitat use changes of native fishes, <br />the NNC soon regained complete dominance. <br />