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Techniques of fisheries management: water quality assessment with stream insects

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Nutrient enrichment of streams is a long-standing problem that continues to have substantial local and regional consequences. For example, water quality of streams in the southern Appalachian Mountains of the U.S. can be seriously degraded by organic nutrients leached from animal wastes if cattle or other livestock are allowed to graze in the riparian zone. Local efforts to recover native brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and improve habitat for coldwater fishes are often undermined by poor livestock management practices. At a regional scale, the cumulative effects of nutrient-enriched streams have resulted in eutrophication of important Atlantic Coast estuaries such as Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and the Albemarle-Pamlico system in North Carolina. Recent outbreaks of a toxic estuarine dinoflagellate (Pfiesteria piscicida), which caused massive fish kills and affected human health, have been attributed to nutrient enrichment.

Citation

Lemly, A. Dennis. 2000. Techniques of fisheries management: water quality assessment with stream insects. Workshop Notes: Silviculture in the Southern Appalachian Mountains Program of Advanced Studies in Silviculture. 30-31.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/1487