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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Department of Ecosystem Science and Management DETERMINING THE BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY COMPOSITION OF FRESHWATER STREAMS FROM FISH GUT ANALYSIS A Thesis in Wildlife and Fisheries Science by Shelly Collette Pickett 2015 Shelly Collette Pickett Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science May 2015 The thesis of Shelly Collette Pickett was reviewed and approved* by the following: Jay R. Stauffer, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Ichthyology Thesis Advisor David A.W. Miller Assistant Professor of Wildlife Population Ecology Gregory A. Hoover Senior Extension Associate, Department of Entomology Michael G. Messina Head and Professor, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT The monitoring of changes in benthic macroinvertebrate communities over time facilitates the evaluation of changes in the function and structure of aquatic ecosystems. I hypothesize that it will be possible to reconstruct historic macroinvertebrate communities by examining gut contents of fishes preserved in natural history museums. Researchers can use this knowledge to estimate the historic benthic macroinvertebrate community for streams from which we have fish museum specimens. These historic data can then be compared to current data to see how macroinvertebrate communities have changed over time. In this study, the fishes whose gut content most accurately reflected the benthic macroinvertebrate community of a freshwater stream, specifically Marshalls Creek, were identified. Both fish species and benthic macroinvertebrates were collected at various sites of Marshalls Creek in East Stroudsburg, PA, in March, August, and December 2010. Collections were taken at different times of year to reflect seasonal variation both in species sampled and quantity collected. 231 fish were dissected and their gut contents identified. Bluespotted Sunfish, Redbreast Sunfish, and White Suckers were the species that best represented the benthic macroinvertebrate community from their gut content. These species can be used to predict 81% of the total summer taxa. If there are 10 museum specimens of the selected species available, (in this case 10 White Suckers, 10 Bluespotted Sunfish, and 10 Redbreast Sunfish), one could dissect a total of 30 fish and expect to identify 68% of the total taxa (both kicknet and gut taxa combined) found in the freshwater stream where the specimens originated. In order to estimate sampling distribution, using R 3.0.2, 100 simulations were run of each combination of three fish species to determine the average quantity of taxa consumed (to the family level) along with sampling variation. The benthic macroinvertebrate data obtained from iv the dissection of museum specimens could then be compared to data obtained from more recently collected specimens (10 White Suckers, 10 Bluespotted Sunfish, and 10 Redbreast Sunfish) and a comparison made to determine how the macroinvertebrate community has changed over time. Are families associated with high quality streams missing from the current collection? Based on which macroinvertebrate families are present and/or absent, the types of stresses that have caused these absences can be determined. v TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ......................................................................................................................... vi List of Tables ........................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. x Chapter 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2 Methods and Materials ............................................................................................ 3 Study Area ................................................................................................................ 3 Sampling Schedule ................................................................................................... 4 Study sites ................................................................................................................ 5 Fish Collection ......................................................................................................... 7 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Collection ..................................................................... 8 Fish Gut Analysis ..................................................................................................... 9 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Identification ................................................................ 10 Simulations ............................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3 Results .................................................................................................................... 13 Presence/Absence Tables ......................................................................................... 13 Life History of Fishes Sampled ................................................................................ 14 Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Description ................................................................... 23 Benthic Macroinvertebrates Found in Kicknet but not Gut Content ........................ 24 Macroinvertebrates Found in Gut Content but not Kicknet ..................................... 30 Macroinvertebrates Found in Summer Gut Content but not Summer Kicknet ........ 33 Simulations ............................................................................................................... 36 Chapter 4 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 37 Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 37 Literature Cited ........................................................................................................................ 41 Appendix A Marshalls Creek Site 0 ................................................................................ 51 Appendix B Marshalls Creek Site 0A ............................................................................. 54 Appendix C Marshalls Creek Site 1 ................................................................................ 56 Appendix D Marshalls Creek Site 2 ................................................................................ 60 Appendix E Marshalls Creek Site 3 ................................................................................ 64 Appendix F Marshalls Creek Site 4 ................................................................................ 70 Appendix G Presence/Absence Tables ........................................................................... 74 Appendix H Fish Gut Content Data ................................................................................ 94 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2-1. Pennsylvania map with study site region highlighted. .......................................... 4 Figure 2-2. Location of Marshalls Creek collection sites ........................................................ 7 Figure A-1. Site 0, Marshalls Creek, looking upstream. .......................................................... 51 Figure A-2. Site 0, Marshalls Creek, looking downstream. ..................................................... 51 Figure B-1. Site 0A, Marshalls Creek, looking downstream. .................................................. 54 Figure C-1. Site 1, Marshalls Creek, looking upstream. .......................................................... 56 Figure C-2. Site 1, Marshalls Creek, looking downstream. ..................................................... 56 Figure D-1. Site 2, Marshalls Creek, looking upstream. .......................................................... 60 Figure E-1. Site 3, Marshalls Creek, looking upstream. .......................................................... 64 Figure E-2. Site 3, Marshalls Creek, looking downstream. ..................................................... 64 Figure F-1. Site 4, Marshalls Creek, looking upstream. .......................................................... 70 Figure F-2. Site 4, Marshalls Creek, looking across the stream. ............................................. 70 vii LIST OF TABLES Table 2-1. Possible combinations of 3 of 7 total fish species (White Sucker, Redbreast Sunfish, Bluespotted Sunfish, American Eel, Creek Chub Sucker, Tessellated Darter and Shield Darter) with the average and standard deviation obtained from 100 simulations . ..................................................................................................................... 12 Table A-1. Fish species collected from Marshalls Creek, Site 0, on December 17, 2010 .. .... 52 Table A-2. Aquatic macroinvertebrates collected from Marshalls Creek, Site 0, on December 17, 2010.. ........................................................................................................ 53 Table B-1. Fish species collected from Marshalls Creek, Site 0A, on August 4, 2010 . ......... 54 Table B-2. Aquatic macroinvertebrates collected from Marshalls Creek, Site 0A, on August 4, 2010 .. .............................................................................................................