The fishes of Champaign County, Illinois : during a century of alterations of a prairie ecosystem

148 Pages·1996·6.9 MB·English

by  Larimore, R. Weldon (Richard Weldon), 1923-

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"S
ILLINOIS
/ ** ' NATURAL
HISTORY
SURVEY
The Fishes of
Champaign County,
Illinois,
During a Century ofAlterations
of a Prairie Ecosystem
R. Weldon Larimore and Peter B. Bayley
Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin
Volume 35, Article 2
October 1996
IllinoisNatural History Survey,LorinI. Nevling,Chief
ADivisionoftheIllinoisDepartmentofNaturalResources
AcatalogofthepublicationsoftheIllinoisNaturalHistorySurveyisavailable
withoutchargefromtheaddressbelow. Apricelistandanorderblankare
includedwiththecatalog.
IllinoisNaturalHistorySurvey
DistributionCenter
NaturalResourcesBuilding
607EastPeabodyDrive
ChampaignrIllinois61820
Citation: Larimore,R.W.,andP.B.Bayley. 1996.ThefishesofChampaign
County,Illinois,duringacenturyofalterationsofaprairieecosystem. Illinois
NaturalHistorySurveyBulletin35(2):53-183..
Editors:ThomasE.RiceandCharlesWarwick
Photocredits: PhotosbyR.W. Larimoreexceptthepictureoftheswaleatthe
topofpage56takenbyMichaelJeffords,,thecowsinthecreekonpage 103 by
KevinCummings,andthestreamsceneatthetoprightofpage 105byCarolyn
Nixon.
MajorfundingforthismanuscriptwasprovidedbytheNationalBiological
Service. .
US ISSN0073-4918
PrintedbyAuthorityoftheStateofIllinois
(RR77103GR-3M-10-96)
ILLINOIS
NATURAL
HISTORY
SURVEY
The Fishes of
Champaign County,
Illinois,
During a Century of Alterations
of a Prairie Ecosystem
R. Weldon Larimore and *Peter B. Bayley
Center for Aquatic Ecology
Illinois Natural History Survey
* Currently at Department ofFisheries andWildlife, Oregon State University
Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin
Volume 35, Article 2
October 1996
Dedicated to
Lewis L. Osborne
friend, colleague, and visionary scientist who died suddenly soon after
guiding to completion the project report upon which this Bulletin is
based. He was directly responsible for the land-use and habitat analyses.
Contents
Acknowledgments iv
Introduction 53
Description ofthe County 53
The Grand Prairie 53
Weather 54
Stream Drainages andCourses 54
General Stream Habitats 55
DevelopmentofAgriculture 58
Draining and Dredging 60
Population, Urban, and Industrial Developments 60
Fishes Collected Duringthe FourSurveys 62
Methods 62
Presence/absence 63
Species Richness 68
Fish Assemblages 68
Comparisons Between 1959 andThis Study 73
Land Useand Stream Habitats 77
Methods 77
County-wide Changes 78
Changes Within Riparian BufferStrips 82
Summary ofLand-use Changes 82
Physio-chemical Habitat 82
HabitatAssessment 82
Results 85
Conclusions 85
Fish Community-Environmental Parameter Relationship 91
Methods 91
Station Groupings 91
Environmental DiscriminantFunctions 92
Implications forWatershed Management 94
Fish Distributions as Affected by Pollution 96
Areas ofChronic Pollution 96
Review ofEnvironmental Influences 1 1
Influences and Status 101
Conclusions ofEnvironmental Influences 104
Summary 106
Literature Cited 107
Addendum 110
Appendix 1 - Annotated List ofFishes 112
Appendix2 - Species Distribution Maps forAll FourSurveys 124
Acknowledgments
Many individuals contributedto the comple-
tion ofthis project, from its inception to the
production ofthe final reportthat was prepared
by Lewis Osborne, PeterBayley, David
Dowling, R. Weldon Larimore, Carolyn
Nixon, James Peterson, Diane Szafoni, and
DanaDowling. This projectreportwas
submittedto the Illinois Departmentof
Conservation forResearch ProjectF-76-R,
conducted with funding fromtheFederal Aid
in Sport Fish Restoration Act. Forthebulletin
presentedhere, weretainedfromthe project
reportthe land-use andhabitatanalysisfor
which we are deeply indebtedtothe late Lewis
L. Osborne. Thanks are extendedto David
Dowling andJames Peterson forleading a
well-disciplinedfield sampling teamthat
provided the coreofrecentfish information
presentedhere; Stephen Sobaski forcomputer
consultation; Michael Morris and Lawrence
Page fortaxonomic assistance; Diane Szafoni,
Carolyn Nixon, and Katherine Hunterfor
preparation ofdistribution maps; Katherine
Darrand Deanne Krumwiede fortyping the
final manuscript; CharlesWarwickand
Thomas Rice forediting; James Smith and
Phillip Fiscellafor angling observations;
David Philipp andLawrence Page forreview-
ing the manuscript; two anonymous reviewers;
and the many colleagues whoparticipated in
some portion ofdatacollection during this
study.
We acknowledge the use ofseveralfigures and
descriptive textfrom the previous INHS
Bulletin, Volume 28, Article 2, 1963, by
Larimore and Smith.