NORTHERN WATERSHED PROJECT Project Report #2 STREAM FISH MANAGEMENT: Defining Relationships between Landscape Characteristics and Fish Communities in the Notikewin River Basin, Alberta The Northern Watershed Project is a collaborative research venture between the Alberta Conservation Association and the Alberta Research Council. STREAM FISH MANAGEMENT: DEFINING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS AND FISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NOTIKEWIN RIVER BASIN, ALBERTA Garry Scrimgeour 1, 2 , Paul Hvenegaard 3, Al Wildeman 3, John Tchir 3 and Sharon Kendall 4 1 Forest Resources Business Unit, Alberta Research Council, Vegreville, Alberta, Canada T9C 1T4. Present address: Alberta Conservation Association, P.O. Box 40027, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5J 4M9. 2 Present address: Alberta Conservation Association, 9920-108th Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T5K 2M4. 3 Alberta Conservation Association, Northwest Business Unit, Bag 9000, Peace River, Alberta, Canada T8 S 1T4. 4 Forest Resources Business Unit, Alberta Research Council, P.O. Bag 4000, Vegreville, Alberta, Canada T9C 1T4. Disclaimer: This document is an independent report requested by, and prepared for, the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholders Committee. The authors are solely responsible for the interpretations of data and statements made within this report. The report does not necessarily reflect endorsement by, or the policies of the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholders Committee. Reproduction and Availability: This report and its contents may be reproduced in whole, or in part, provided that this title page is included with such reproduction and/or appropriate acknowledgements are provided to the authors and sponsors of this project. This document should be cited as: Scrimgeour, G., Hvenegaard, P., Wildeman, A., Tchir, J., Kendall, S. 2003. Stream fish management: relationships between landscape characteristics and fish communities in the Notikewin River Basin, Alberta. Report produced by the Alberta Conservation Association (Peace River, Alberta) and the Alberta Research Council (Vegreville, Alberta) for the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholder Committee. Northern Watershed Project Final Report No. 2. 109 pp. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was developed by the Alberta Research Council and the Alberta Conservation Association for the Northern Watershed Project Stakeholder Committee comprising the nine funding stakeholders of Alberta Environment, Alberta Conservation Association, Alberta Pacific Forest Industries, Alberta Research Council, Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, Daishowa-Marubeni International, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Manning Diversified Forest Products and TransCanada Pipelines. We sincerely thank the Stakeholder Committee for their input on the scope and direction of the project and for project funding. However, statements contained in this document are those of the authors. We also thank Bill Tonn, Cindy Paszkowski (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta),and Michelle Hiltz and Jason Fisher (Alberta Research Council) for discussions on stream fish assemblages and advice on statistical analyses. We are indebted to Pat Soldan (Alberta Research Council), Sherry Feser (Alberta Conservation Association) and June Vollans for document editing and formatting. We also sincerely appreciate the efforts of Brian Fairless (Government of Alberta) who developed and completed many of the GIS queries and who assisted with the production of maps and databases. Lastly, we thank Dave Fairless for providing the cover photograph. III IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III LIST OF FIGURES VII LIST OF TABLES VIII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY XI 1.0 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................1 1.1 Distribution and Abundance of Fish Communities in Forested Landscapes....................1 1.2 Geological History of the Boreal Region and Fish Assemblages ...................................1 1.3 Study Rationale .........................................................................................................2 1.4 Study Objectives .......................................................................................................3 2.0 STUDY AREA...................................................................................................................5 2.1 Description ...............................................................................................................5 2.2 Ecoregions, Forest Cover and Soils.............................................................................7 2.3 Fish Communities .....................................................................................................9 3.0 GENERAL MATERIALS AND METHODS ....................................................................11 3.1 Data Screening ..........................................................................................................11 3.2 Watershed Characteristics ..........................................................................................11 3.3 Stream Reach Characteristics .....................................................................................14 3.4 Fish Communities .....................................................................................................18 4.0 FOCAL QUESTION 1 – HOW TEMPORALLY VARIABLE ARE FISH COMMUNITIES IN THE NOTIKEWIN RIVER BASIN? ..............................................21 4.1 Design and Statistical analyses ...................................................................................21 4.2 Results......................................................................................................................22 4.2.1 Overall Patterns in Fish Communities ............................................................22 4.2.2 Presence-absence..........................................................................................24 4.2.3 Concordance in the presence or absence of fish...............................................25 4.2.4 Species replacement......................................................................................26 4.2.5 Fish density...................................................................................................26 5.0 FOCAL QUESTION 2 - IS THE PRESENCE OF FISH, GAME FISH AND INDIVIDUAL SPECIES PREDICTABLE BASED ON STREAM HABITAT AND WATERSHED VARIABLES?.................................................................................31 5.1 Design and statistical analyses....................................................................................31 5.2 Results......................................................................................................................31 5.2.1 Data screening..............................................................................................31 5.2.2 Frequency of occurrence................................................................................32 5.2.3 Logistic regressions.......................................................................................32 6.0 FOCAL QUESTION 3 - DO STREAM REACH AND WATERSHED CHARACTERISTICS SHAPE FISH ASSEMBLAGE STRUCTURE?...........................49 V 6.1 Design and Statistical analyses ...................................................................................49 6.2 Results......................................................................................................................49 6.2.1 Canonical correspondence analyses...............................................................49 6.2.2 Multiple regression........................................................................................50 7.0 FOCAL QUESTION 4 - TO WHAT EXTENT ARE RELATIONS BETWEEN FISH ASSEMBLAGES AND WATERSHED VARIABLES APPLICABLE TO ADJACENT WATERSHEDS? ..........................................................................................55 7.1 Design and Statistical analyses ...................................................................................55 7.1.1 Empirical models ..........................................................................................55 7.1.2 The Reference Condition approach.................................................................55 7.2 Results......................................................................................................................57 7.2.1 Identifying fish assemblages in the Notikewin Sub-basin ..................................57 7.2.2 Discriminating among fish assemblages in the Notikewin Sub-basin .................57 7.2.3 Testing the utility of the discriminant function model: application to the Hotchkiss and Meikle Sub-basins....................................................................61 7.2.4 Description of fish assemblages in the larger Notikewin watershed...................61 8.0 FOCAL QUESTION 5 - TO WHAT EXTENT ARE FISH ASSEMBLAGES STRUCTURED BY FOREST COVER ATTRIBUTES?..................................................67 8.1 Design and Statistical analyses ...................................................................................67 8.2 Results......................................................................................................................67 8.2.1 Presence of fish.............................................................................................67 8.2.2 Fish community structure...............................................................................74 9.0 DISCUSSION.....................................................................................................................77