Scott S. Knight

Effects of channel incision on base flow stream habitats and fishes

Channel incision is a widespread phenomenon that results in stream and riparian habitat degradation. Fishes and physical habitat variables were sampled at base flow from three incised stream channels and one reference stream in northwest Mississippi, USA, to quantify incision effects on fish habitat and provide a basis for habitat rehabilitation planning and design. Incised channels were sampled in spring and autumn; the reference channel was sampled only in the autumn. Incised channel habitat quality was inferior to the reference channel despite the presence of structures designed to restore channel stability. Incised channels had physical habitat diversity levels similar to a nonincised reference channel, but contained fewer types of habitat. At base flow, incised channels were dominated by shallow, sandy habitats, moderate to high mean local Froude numbers, and had relatively little organic debris in their beds. In contrast, the reference stream had greater mean water depth, contained more woody debris, and provided more deep pool habitat. Fish assemblages in incised channels were composed of smaller fishes representing fewer species relative to the reference site. Fish species richness was directly proportional to the mean local Froude number, an indicator of the availability of pool habitat.

Rehabilitation of aquatic habitats in warmwater streams damaged by channel incision in Mississippi

Channel incision has major impacts on stream corridor ecosystems, leading to reduced spatial habitat heterogeneity, greater temporal instability, less stream-floodplain interaction, and shifts in fish community structure. Most literature dealing with channel incision examines physical processes and erosion control. A study of incised warmwater stream rehabilitation was conducted to develop and demonstrate techniques that would be economically feasible for integration with more orthodox, extensively employed watershed stabilization techniques (e.g., structural bank protection, grade control structures, small reservoirs, and land treatment). One-km reaches of each of five northwest Mississippi streams with contributing drainage areas between 16 and 205 km2 were selected for a 5-year study. During the study two reaches were modified by adding woody vegetation and stone structure to rehabilitate habitats degraded by erosion and channelization. The other three reaches provided reference data, as two of them were degraded but not rehabilitated, and the third was only lightly degraded. Rehabilitation approaches were guided by conceptual models of incised channel evolution and fish community structure in small warmwater streams. These models indicated that rehabilitation efforts should focus on aggradational reaches in the downstream portions of incising watersheds, and that ecological status could be improved by inducing formation and maintenance of stable pool habitats.Fish and physical habitat attributes were sampled from each stream during the Spring and Fall for 5 years, and thalweg and cross-section surveys were performed twice during the same period. Rehabilitation increased pool habitat availability, and made the treated sites physically more similar to the lightly degraded reference site. Fish communities generally responded as suggested by the aforementioned conceptual model of fish community structure. Species composition shifted away from small colonists (principally cyprinids and small centrarchids) toward larger centrarchids, catostomids, and ictalurids. Fish density and species richness increased at one rehabilitated site but remained stable at the other, suggesting that the sites occupied different initial states and endpoints within the conceptual model, and differed in their accessibility to sources of colonizing organisms. These experiments suggest that major gains in stream ecosystem rehabilitation can be made through relatively modest but well-designed efforts to modify degraded physical habitats.

Use of the index of biotic integrity to assess physical habitat degradation in warmwater streams

Indices of biotic integrity (1131) were computed for two annual fish collections from 27 locations along the bluffline bordering the Mississippi River alluvial plain in northwestern Mississippi. Study sites exhibited varying degrees of physical habitat degradation due to accelerated channel erosion. Objectives of index application were to quantify existing environmental quality and to test the IBI as a tool for relating fish population characteristics to physical degradation. Physical habitat data were collected concurrently with fish at all sites, and physical habitat descriptors were compared with the IBI scores and component metrics.Three to 23 fish species were captured from each site, and species richness explained 64–70% of the variance in IBI scores. Fish collections were dominated by insectivores tolerant of habitat and water quality degradation. Suckers and piscivores were relatively uncommon.The IBI scores were generally not reflective of physical habitat conditions. Variation in IBI scores was indicative of only the grossest differences in physical habitat quality. Weak relationships between physical habitat quality and IBI scores may have been due to large temporal variations in biotic integrity typical of degraded habitats. Alternatively, water quality degradation, which we did not measure, may have confounded relationships between physical habitat and fish metrics.Regional application of the IBI as a habitat assessment tool in landscapes with widespread physical degradation must overcome lack of suitable reference sites, large temporal variation in IBI scores, and small numbers of fish per collection, leading to lower confidence levels for IBI scores. The scarcity of lightly impacted sites may hinder detection of biotic integrity response along gradients of physical habitat quality.

Response of fishes and aquatic habitats to sand-bed stream restoration using large woody debris ∗

Effects of habitat rehabilitation of Little Topashaw Creek, a sinuous, sand-bed stream draining 37 km2 in northwest Mississippi are described. The rehabilitation project consisted of placing 72 large woody debris structures along eroding concave banks and planting 4000 willow cuttings in sandbars. Response was measured by monitoring flow, channel geometry, physical aquatic habitat, and fish populations. Initially, debris structures reduced high flow velocities at concave bank toes, preventing further erosion and inducing deposition. Physical response during the first year following construction included creation of sand berms along eroding banks and slight increases in base flow water width and depth. Fish collections showed assemblages typical of incising streams within the region, but minor initial responses to debris addition were evident. Progressive failure of the structures and renewed erosion were observed during the second year after construction.

Mitigation of two pyrethroid insecticides in a Mississippi Delta constructed wetland

Constructed wetlands are a suggested best management practice to help mitigate agricultural runoff before entering receiving aquatic ecosystems. A constructed wetland system (180 m x 30 m), comprising a sediment retention basin and two treatment cells, was used to determine the fate and transport of simulated runoff containing the pyrethroid insecticides lambda-cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin, as well as suspended sediment. Wetland water, sediment, and plant samples were collected spatially and temporally over 55 d. Results showed 49 and 76% of the studys measured lambda-cyhalothrin and cyfluthrin masses were associated with vegetation, respectively. Based on conservative effects concentrations for invertebrates and regression analyses of maximum observed wetland aqueous concentrations, a wetland length of 215 m x 30 m width would be required to adequately mitigate 1% pesticide runoff from a 14 ha contributing area. Results of this experiment can be used to model future design specifications for constructed wetland mitigation of pyrethroid insecticides.

Rehabilitation of warmwater stream ecosystems following channel incision

Abstract Presented is a case study of two streams (watershed size, 12 and 14 km 2 ) damaged by channel straightening and incision. One stream was stabilized using a metal sheet piling weir and dormant willow post planting, while the other was treated with a stone weir, stone toe bank protection and willow sprout planting. Fishes and their physical habitats were monitored for 1–2 years before construction and two to three years afterward. Willow planting was not successful, so canopy, bank vegetation, and woody debris density were unchanged. Pool habitat area increased from less than 5% to more than 30% of the total aquatic area. Fish species richness and diversity were unchanged, but species composition shifted away from patterns typical of shallow, sandy runs toward pool-dwelling types, becoming more similar to a nearby lightly-degraded reference site. Median lengths of selected centrarchids increased following rehabilitation. Physical and biological response were more persistent for the stream treated with the stone weir and bank toe protection, possibly because the stone toe produced a more uniform longitudinal distribution of cover and pool habitats than the single weir.

Cyclic perturbation of lowland river channels and ecological response.

Certain lowland streams have experienced prehistorical and historical cycles of aggradation, occlusion, degradation, headward incision, and renewed aggradation. Historical cycles appear to be related to human activities. A case study is presented of the Yalobusha River in Mississippi with emphasis on the effects of blockage and removal on aquatic habitats and fish. The adjacent Skuna River, which was channelized and unblocked, was used in space for time substitution to infer effects of blockage removal on the Yalobusha. Variables describing physical aquatic habitat and fish were sampled from three groups of river reaches: unblocked channelized, channelized and blocked, and naturally sinuous. Fish collections were used to compute six indicators of ecological integrity. At baseflow, mean water depths were an order of magnitude lower in the unblocked channelized stream than for the others. In-channel aquatic habitat volume per unit valley length was 5, 85, and 283 m 3 /m for the channelized, blocked channelized, and natural reaches, respectively. Mean values for all six ecological indicators were lowest for the channelized group. Species richness was greatest for the channelized blocked reach. The ecological indicators displayed gradients in response to the range of observed physical conditions. Management of corridors susceptible to the cycle described above should involve a blend of measures designed to conserve higher quality habitats.

Nutrient trapping efficiency of a small sediment detention reservoir

Abstract Weekly measurements of water quality parameters were taken over a 5 year period from four sites in Morris Pond, a 1.09 ha reservoir in the loess hills of Mississippis Goodwin Creek drainage basin. Catchment of the 30 year old reservoir, constructed for flood and sediment control, consisted of 17.8 ha of permanent pasture and 14.6 ha of cultivated and mixed-cover land. Inflow in winter and spring increased reservoir concentrations of phosphorus (from nondetectable to 1 mg/l), nitrate-nitrogen (from nondetectable to 1 mg/l), and suspended sediments (from 30 to > 300 mg/l). Storm-related inflow was the driving force behind short-term limnological and water quality cycles in Morris Pond. Multiple chlorophyll peaks indicated rapid phytoplankton response to runoff-related nutrient loading in this shallow (2.5 m normal max. depth) reservoir. Chlorophyll a ranged from

Mitigating agrichemicals from an artificial runoff event using a managed riverine wetland

We examined the mitigation efficiency of a managed riverine wetland amended with a mixture of suspended sediment, two nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus), and three pesticides (atrazine, metolachlor, and permethrin) during a simulated agricultural runoff event. Hydrologic management of the 500 m-long, 25 m-wide riverine wetland was done by adding weirs at both ends. The agrichemical mixture was amended to the wetland at the upstream weir simulating a four-hour, ~1cm rainfall event from a 16ha agricultural field. Water samples (1L) were collected every 30 min within the first 4h, then every 4h until 48 h, and again on days 5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 post-amendment at distances of 0m, 10 m, 40 m, 300 m and 500 m from the amendment point within the wetland for suspended solids, nutrient, and pesticide analyses. Peak sediment, nutrient, and pesticide concentrations occurred within 3 h of amendment at 0m, 10 m, 40 m, and 300 m downstream and showed rapid attenuation of agrichemicals from the water column with 79-98%, 42-98%, and 63-98% decrease in concentrations of sediments, nutrients, and pesticides, respectively, within 48 h. By day 28, all amendments were near or below pre-amendment concentrations. Water samples at 500 m showed no changes in sediment or nutrient concentrations; pesticide concentrations peaked within 48 h but at ≤11% of upstream peak concentrations and had dissipated by day 28. Managed riverine wetlands≥1 ha and with hydraulic residence times of days to weeks can efficiently trap agricultural runoff during moderate (1cm) late-spring and early-summer rainfall events, mitigating impacts to receiving rivers.

Large Woody Debris Structures for Incised Channel Rehabilitation

Described is a project intended to restore habitats along 2 km of a sand bed stream severely damaged by channel incision. Structural measures are limited to placement of large woody debris and planting switchgrasses and woody vegetation. Assessment of pre-project channel stability and design of large woody debris structures are described. If successful, this approach will offer significant cost savings over traditional approaches involving stone bank protection structures.