Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Cumulative Industrial Activity Alters Lotic Fish Assemblages in Two Boreal Forest Watersheds of Alberta, Canada

  • Published:
Environmental Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

We evaluated the cumulative effects of land use disturbance resulting from forest harvesting, and exploration and extraction of oil and gas resources on the occurrence and structure of stream fish assemblages in the Kakwa and Simonette watersheds in Alberta, Canada. Logistic regression models showed that the occurrence of numerically dominant species in both watersheds was related to two metrics defining industrial activity (i.e., percent disturbance and road density), in addition to stream wetted width, elevation, reach slope, and percent fines. Occurrences of bull trout, slimy sculpin, and white sucker were negatively related to percent disturbance and that of Arctic grayling, and mountain whitefish were positively related to percent disturbance and road density. Assessments of individual sites showed that 76% of the 74 and 46 test sites in the Kakwa and Simonette watersheds were possibly impaired or impaired. Impaired sites in the Kakwa Watershed supported lower densities of bull trout, mountain whitefish, and rainbow trout, but higher densities of Arctic grayling compared to appropriate reference sites. Impaired sites in the Simonette Watershed supported lower densities of bull trout, but higher densities of lake chub compared to reference sites. Our data suggest that current levels of land use disturbance alters the occurrence and structure of stream fish assemblages.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ananda J (2007) Implementing participatory decision making in forest planning. Environmental Management 39:707–720

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson DR, Burnham KP, Thompson WL (2000) Null hypothesis testing: problems, prevalence and an alternative. Journal of Wildlife Management 64:912–923

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angelstam P, Boutin S, Schmiegelow F, Villard M-A, Drapeau P, Host G, Innes J, Isachenko T, Mőnkkőnen M, Niemelä J, Niemi G, Roberge JM, Spence J, Stone D (2004) Targets for boreal forest biodiversity—a rationale for macroecological research and adaptive management. Ecological Bulletin 51:487–509

    Google Scholar 

  • Angermeier PL, Smogor RA (1995) Estimating number of species and relatively abundances in stream fish communities: effects of sampling effort and discontinuous spatial distributions. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 52:936–949

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anonymous (1991) Alberta vegetation inventory standards manual, Alberta Forestry Information Services Division, Resources Information Branch, November 1991, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

  • Bailey RC, Norris RH, Reynoldson TB (2004) Bioassessment of freshwater ecosystems: using the reference conditions approach. Springer, New York, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Baxter CV, Frissell CA, Hauer FR (1999) Geomorphology, logging roads, and the distribution of bull trout spawning in a forested river basin: implications for management and conservation. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 128:854–867

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bélisle M, Cassidy St. Clair C (2001) Cumulative effects of barriers on the movements of forest birds. Conservation Ecology 5(2):9. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/vol5/iss2/art9/

  • Bowman MF, Somers KM (2005) Considerations when using the reference condition approach for bioassessment of freshwater ecosystems. Water Quality Journal of Canada 40:347–360

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham KP, Anderson DR (1998) Model selection and inference: a practical information-theoretic approach. Springer-Verlag, New York, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Buttle JM, Metcalfe RA (2000) Boreal forest disturbance and streamflow response, northeastern Ontario. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57(Suppl 2):5–18

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carignan R, D’Arcy P, Lamontagne S (2000) Comparative impacts of fire and forest harvesting on water quality in Boreal shield lakes. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57(Suppl 2):105–117

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark KR (1993) Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18:117–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunham JB, Reiman BE (1999) Metapopulation structure of bull trout: influences of physical, biotic, and geometrical landscape characteristics. Ecological Monographs 9:642–655

    Google Scholar 

  • Eaglin GS, Hubert WA (1993) Effects of logging and roads on substrate and trout in streams of the Medicine Bow National Forest, Wyoming. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 13:844–846

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fielding AH, Bell JF (1997) A review of methods for the assessment of prediction errors in conservation presence/absence models. Environmental Conservation 24:38–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garman GC, Moring JR (1993) Diet and annual production of two boreal river fishes following clearcut logging. Environmental Biology of Fishes 36:301–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Government of Alberta (1999) National forest strategy implementation action plan. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development. Alberta, Canada. Accessed on-line: http://www.srd.gov.ab.ca/forests/pdf/nfsap.pdf

  • Hartman GF, Scrivener JC, Miles MJ (1996) Impacts of logging in Carnation Creek, a high-energy coastal stream in British Columbia, and their implication for restoring fish habitat. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53:237–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauer FR, Poole GC, Gangemi JT, Baxter CV (1999) Large woody debris in bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) spawning of logged and wilderness watersheds in northwest Montana. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 56:915–924

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hewlett JD, Fortson JC (1982) Stream temperature under an inadequate buffer strip in the southeast Piedmont. Water Research Bulletin 18:983–988

    Google Scholar 

  • Hicks BJ, Beschta RL, Harr RD (1991) Long-term changes in streamflow following logging in western Oregon and associated fisheries implications. Water Research Bulletin 27:217–226

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones EB III, Helfman GS, Harper JO, Bolstad PV (1999) Effects of riparian forest removal on fish assemblages in southern Appalachian streams. Conservation Biology 13:1454–1465

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Joy M (1996) Handling uncertainty in GIS and environmental models: an application in forest management. M.Sc. Thesis, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

  • Lamontagne S, Carignan R, D’Arcy P, Prairie YT, Paré D (2000) Element export in runoff from eastern Canadian Boreal shield drainage basin following forest harvesting and wildfires. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 57(Suppl 2):118–128

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li H, Lamberti GA, Pearsons TN, Tait CK, Li JL, Buckhouse JC (1994) Cumulative effects of riparian disturbance along high desert trout streams of the John Day basin, Oregon. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 123:627–640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCleary RJ, Hassan MA (2008) Predictive modeling and spatial mapping of fish distributions in small streams of the Canadian Rocky Mountain foothills. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 65:319–333

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCune B, Grace JB (2002) Analysis of ecological communities. MJM Software Design, Oregon, USA

  • McCune B, Mefford MJ (1999) PC-ORD. Multivariate analysis of ecological data. Version 4. MJM Software Design. Gleneden Beach, Oregon, USA

  • McIntosh BA, Sedell JR, Thurow RF, Clarke SE, Chandler GL (2000) Historical changes in pool habitats in the Columbia River Basin. Ecological Applications 10:1478–1496

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Norris RH, Prosser I, Young B, Liston P, Bauer N, Davies N, Dyer F, Linke S, Thoms M (2001) The assessment of river condition (ARC). Final report submitted to the national land and water resources Audit Office, CSIRO Land and Water. Accessed on-line: http://www.anra.gov.au/topics/water/pubs/river_assessment/river_assessment.pdf

  • Northcote TG, Hartman GF (eds) (2004) Fishes and forestry. Blackwell Science Ltd., Oxford, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Pearce J, Ferrier S (2000) Evaluating the predictive performance of habitat models developed using logistic regression. Ecological Modeling 133:225–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Platts WS, Torquemada RJ, McHenry ML, Graham CK (1989) Changes in salmon spawning and rearing habitat from increased delivery of fine sediment to the South Fork Salmon River, Idaho. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 118:274–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Post JR, Johnston FD (2002) Status of the bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in Alberta. Alberta Wildlife Status report No. 39. Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

  • Reynolds L, Herlihy AT, Kaufmann PR, Gregory SV, Hughes MH (2002) Electrofishing effort requirements for assessing species richness and integrity. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 23:450–461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynoldson TB, Norris RH, Resh VH, Day KE, Rosenberg DM (1997) The reference condition: a comparison of multimetric and multivariate approaches to assess water-quality impairment using benthic macroinvertebrates. Journal of North American Benthological Society 16:833–852

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynoldson TB, Rosenberg DM, Resh VH (2001) A comparison of models predicting invertebrate assemblages for biomonitoring in the Fraser River catchment. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 58:395–1410

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rieman BE, Lee DC, Thurow RF (1997) Distribution, status, and likely future trends of bull trout within the Columbia River and Klamath River basins. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 17:1111–1125

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ripley T, Scrimgeour GJ, Boyce M (2005) Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) occurrence and abundance influenced by cumulative industrial developments in a Canadian boreal forest watershed. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 62:2431–2442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutherford DA, Echelle AA, Maughan OE (1992) Drainage-wide effects of timber harvesting on the structure of stream fish assemblages in Southeastern Oklahoma. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 121:716–728

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schindler DW (1998) A dim future for boreal waters and landscapes: cumulative effects of climatic warming, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid precipitation, and other human activities. Bioscience 48:157–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider RR (2002) Alternative futures: Alberta’s boreal forest at the crossroads. The Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  • Schneider RR, Stelfox JB, Boutin S, Wasel S (2003) Managing the cumulative impacts of land uses in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin: a modeling approach. Conservation Ecology 7:621–628

    Google Scholar 

  • Scrimgeour GJ, Hvenegaard P, Tchir J, Kendall S, Wildeman A (2003) Stream fish management: cumulative effects of watershed disturbances on stream fish communities in the Kakwa and Simonette River Basins, Alberta. Report produced by the Alberta Conservation Association (Peace River) and the Alberta Research Council (Vegreville) for the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholder Committee. Northern Watershed Project Final Report No. 3. Alberta Research Council, Vegreville, Alberta, Canada

  • SPSS (2001) Statistical package for the social sciences. SPSS Inc. Chicago, Illinois, USA

  • Steedman RJ, Tonn WM, Paszkowski CA, Scrimgeour GJ (2004) Forestry and fish in the boreal region of Canada. In: Northcote TG, Hartman GF (eds) Fishes and forestry: worldwide watershed interactions and management. Blackwell Science, Oxford, UK, pp 413–438

    Google Scholar 

  • Strahler AN (1957) Quantitative analysis of watershed geomorphology. American Geophysical Union Transactions. 38:913–920

    Google Scholar 

  • Strong WL, Leggat KR (1992) Ecoregions of Alberta. Land Information Services Division, Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    Google Scholar 

  • Systat (2004) Systat 11. Systat Software Inc. Richmond, California, USA

  • Tabachnik BG, Fidell LS (2001) Using multivariate statistics, 4th edn. Allyn and Bacon, Boston, USA

    Google Scholar 

  • Tchir JP, Hvenegaard PJ, Scrimgeour GJ (2004) Stream crossing inventories in the Swan and Notikewin river basins of northwest Alberta: resolution at the watershed scale. In: Scrimgeour GJ, Eisler G, McCulloch B, Silins U, Monita M (eds) Forest-Land-Fish conference II—ecosystem stewardship through collaboration. Alberta Conservation Association, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, pps 53–62

  • Wang L, Robertson DM, Garrison PJ (2007) Linkages between nutrients and assemblages of macroinvertebrates and fish in wadeable streams: implication to nutrient criteria development. Environmental Management 39:194–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was developed and completed by the Alberta Conservation Association and the Alberta Research Council for the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholder Committee that comprised the nine funding organizations of Alberta Environment (Government of Alberta), Alberta Conservation Association, Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Alberta Research Council, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (Government of Alberta), Daishowa-Marubeni International, Department of Fisheries and Oceans (Government of Canada), Manning Diversified Forest Products, and TransCanada Pipelines. We thank the Stakeholder committee for their input on the scope and direction of the project and for providing funding and in-kind support. We also thank Travis Ripley, Rich McCleary, and Bill Tonn for sharing some of their knowledge on bull trout, Trefor Reynoldson for discussions on the reference condition approach, and Brian Fairless for developing and completing GIS queries. We thank Thom Whittier, Les Stanfield, two anonymous reviewers, and Lizhu Wang for their comments, which improved this article.

Author information

Author notes

  1. John Tchir

    Present address: Fish and Wildlife Division, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Box 24, Provincial Building, Grande Prairie, AB, Canada, T8V 6J4

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alberta Conservation Association, Sixth Floor, Great West Life Building, 9920-108 Street, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T5K 2M4

    Garry J. Scrimgeour

  2. Parks Canada Agency, Western and Northern Service Centre, Thirteenth Floor, 635 – 8th Avenue, SW, Calgary, AB, Canada, T2P 3M3

    Garry J. Scrimgeour

  3. Alberta Conservation Association, Bag 9000, Peace River, AB, Canada, T8S 1T4

    Paul J. Hvenegaard & John Tchir

Authors
  1. Garry J. Scrimgeour
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul J. Hvenegaard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. John Tchir
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Garry J. Scrimgeour.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Scrimgeour, G.J., Hvenegaard, P.J. & Tchir, J. Cumulative Industrial Activity Alters Lotic Fish Assemblages in Two Boreal Forest Watersheds of Alberta, Canada. Environmental Management 42, 957–970 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9207-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9207-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation