Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design

Department

Wildlife and Fisheries Resources

Committee Chair

Caroline A. Arantes

Committee Co-Chair

Brent Murry

Committee Member

David Wellman, II

Abstract

While Appalachia is among the oldest region in the world, Central West Virginia watersheds have been impacted by anthropogenic stressors, including extractive mining and timber harvest industries, as well as urban development and agriculture, damns, fracking, mining, and land cover use. This study aims to understand how natural environmental and human altered gradients impact affect diversity of fish communities in streams and rivers throughout Central Appalachia. The first chapter aims to provide insights into the impact of the 2016 low head dam removals on taxonomic and functional fish communities in the West Fork River, West Virginia and the potential benefits and challenges associated with this type of restoration effort. Between September and October 2022, boat electroshocking surveys were conducted on the West Fork River in sites that were previously impounded and sites that are currently impounded by low head dams. Additionally, one year of pre-removal data exists for sport fish species from the summer of 2015. Results from multivariate analysis indicate that current impounded sites and free flowing sites have statistically significant distinct taxonomic and trophic fish communities. Free flowing sites were associated with overall higher taxonomic richness, as well as species abundance of recreational importance including spotted bass, smallmouth bass, and channel catfish. Further, we calculated functional richness indices for the modern impounded and free flowing sites (FRic, FEve, and FDiv). Results from ANOVA comparing indices at the two categories of sites suggest that FRic is higher at free-flowing sites. The second chapter of this study focuses on how environmental filtering from natural and anthropogenic conditions effect functional diversity (FD) of fish communities of mid-order streams. Using morphological traits, FD indices (FRic, FEve, and FDiv) were calculated for each site and evaluated using Bayesian Regression techniques. Our results showed that FD of fish communities are influenced by both natural and human altered environmental conditions, including stream temperature, dissolved oxygen mg/L, turbidity, and percent developed landcover in the catchment. Evidence from this study suggests that enhancing natural flow conditions, especially in highly developed watersheds, is essential for conserving biodiversity and quality of fisheries in West Virginia.

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