Distribution, Habitat Use and Life History of Stream-dwelling Crayfish in the Spring River Drainage of Arkansas and Missouri with a Focus on the Imperiled Mammoth Spring Crayfish (Orconectes marchandi)

Abstract

Abstract The Mammoth Spring crayfish (Orconectes marchandi) is listed as endangered by the American Fisheries Society's Endangered Species Committee and globally impaired by the Missouri Natural Heritage Database. Recorded at only three locations in the Spring River watershed (southern Missouri and northern Arkansas), little information exists on its range, associations with other crayfish and habitat selection. We sampled stream-dwelling crayfish with kicknets and quadrat samplers during spring-summer over 2 y in the Spring River drainage to determine distribution, relative density, habitat use, species associations, and life history characteristics of O. marchandi and other associated crayfish species. Nine crayfish species were collected in the Spring River watershed including a previously unrecorded invasive species, O. neglectus chaenodactylus, that appears to have replaced the native O. eupunctus from a portion of the watershed where it was previously abundant. The known distribution of O. marchandi...