Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Missouri
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Missouri Project

Conservation and Management of Missouri’s Mid-Sized Rivers: Development of Sampling Protocols and Application to Priority Watershed Rivers

July 2013 - June 2019

Personnel

Participating Agencies

Missouri Department of Conservation

This study will help MDC determine the ecological role of mid sized rivers.

Research Publications

Research Publications	Publication Date
Dunn, C. G., and C. P. Paukert. 2020. A Flexible Survey Design for Monitoring Spatiotemporal Fish Richness in Non-wadeable Rivers: Optimizing Efficiency by Integrating Gears. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 77(6): 978-990. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2019-0315. \| Abstract \| Download \| Publisher Website	February 2020	We designed a flexible protocol for monitoring fish species richness in nonwadeable rivers. Nine sites were sampled seasonally with six gears in two physiographic regions in Missouri (USA). Using resampling procedures and mixed-effects modeling, we quantified richness and compositional overlap among gears, identified efficient gear combinations, and evaluated protocol performance across regions and seasons. We detected 25–75 species per sample and 89 185 fish. On average, no single gear detected >62% of observed species, but an optimized, integrated-gear protocol with four complementary gears on average detected 90% of species while only requiring 51.9% of initial sampling effort. Neither season nor physiographic region explained low spatiotemporal variation in percent richness detected by the integrated-gear protocol. In contrast, equivalent effort with an electrofishing-only protocol was 53.5% less efficient, seasonally biased and imprecise (36.1%–82.3% of richness), and on average detected 15.9% less of observed richness. Altogether, riverine fish richness is likely underestimated with single-gear survey designs. When paired with existing wadeable-stream inventories, our customizable approach could benefit regional monitoring by comprehensively documenting riverine contributions to riverscape biodiversity.
Dunn, C., B. Brooke, R. Hrabik, and C. Paukert. 2018. Intensive Sampling Reveals Underreported Use of Great-River Tributaries by Large-River Fishes in Missouri. Southeastern Naturalist 17:512-520.doi.org/10.1656/058.017.0316 \| Abstract \| Download \| Publisher Website	July 2018	Large tributaries may help sustain large-river fish populations by mitigating fishhabitat losses within the highly modified great rivers of the Mississippi River basin. These tributaries are likely most beneficial for fish species specializing on non-degraded large-river habitat for some portion of their life histories. Few great-river tributaries, however, have been surveyed using methods that comprehensively target all fish species, resulting in uncertainty<br>or bias in the reported composition of many tributary fish assemblages. We report important distributional records, including 23 new accounts, for 12 large-river specialist fishes in Missouri—Alosa alabamae (Alabama Shad), Cycleptus elongatus (Blue Sucker), Pimephales vigilax (Bullhead Minnow), Notropis wickliffi (Channel Shiner), Polyodon spathula (Paddlefish), Hybognathus placitus (Plains Minnow), N. blennius (River Shiner), Macrhybopsis hyostoma (Shoal Chub), Scaphirhynchus platorynchus (Shovelnose Sturgeon), M. storeriana (Silver Chub), Ichthyomyzon unicuspis (Silver Lamprey), and Alosa chrysochloris (Skipjack Herring)—following 38 comprehensive fish surveys in tributaries<br>of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. New accounts collectively demonstrate tributaries support more large-river specialists than historically documented and thus may be currently undervalued sources of habitat for large-river fishes.