Temporal variability in fish assemblages from disturbed and undisturbed streams

Abstract

Fish assemblages were sampled by electrofishingover a two- to ten-year period in undisturbedand anthropogenically disturbed South Carolinacoastal plain streams. Jaccard similarity,Bray–Curtis similarity, and Spearman rankcorrelations among samples collected from thesame sites over time were significantly greaterat undisturbed sites than at disturbed sites,suggesting greater fish assemblage persistenceand stability at the undisturbed sites. TheIndex of Biotic Integrity (IBI) also exhibitedsignificantly less variation over time atundisturbed sites than at disturbed sites.Physical habitat structure changed more overtime at disturbed sites than at undisturbedsites, and this variability was directlyrelated to temporal variability in fishassemblage structure. Comparisons betweenmultiple and single pass electrofishing samplessuggested that only a small proportion of thetemporal variability observed at the studysites was caused by inefficient sampling.Assessment of temporal variation in fishassemblage structure can serve as an indicatorof environmental disturbance and facilitate thedistinction of substantive ecological changefrom normal background variation.