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The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve Fish and Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring: 2023 Field Report
Holda, Toby J.; Solomon, Levi E.; Lamer, James T.
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/125339
Description
- Title
- The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve Fish and Aquatic Vegetation Monitoring: 2023 Field Report
- Author(s)
- Holda, Toby J.
- Solomon, Levi E.
- Lamer, James T.
- Issue Date
- 2024-12-20
- Keyword(s)
- Long Term Resource Monitoring
- Submersed aquatic vegetation
- Mississippi River
- Upper Mississippi River Restoration
- Rake sampler method
- Key Ecological Attributes
- Fish
- Native species
- Illinois River
- Illinois Department of Natural Resources
- Fish Monitoring
- Conservation
- Restoration
- Geographic Coverage
- Illinois
- Abstract
- Since 2007, the Emiquon Preserve (Emiquon) has been monitored using Key Ecological Attributes (KEA) to determine the success of restoration on the vegetation and fish communities. The KEA’s were developed to reflect a high-functioning, balanced ecosystem at its upper limits. Submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV) abundance and richness have been estimated using both a rake sampler method of the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) Upper Mississippi River Restoration (UMRR) program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring (LTRM) program, and also a box sampler method for precise biomass estimation. These both involve repeatable long- term sampling and have been employed at the Emiquon Preserve from 2008-2015 (rake), and 2016-2022 (box), and both were employed in independent surveys in 2023. Even with re-institution of the LTRM rake method in 2023, the box sampler method was continued so that our dataset can include overlapping years for the two methods. 2023 is the first of at least 3 planned years which will have both methods employed at the preserve. SAV communities have continued to be dominated by native species from 2008 through 2023. SAV densities in 2023 were similar to those since 2021, which are about 20% of values during 2016-2020 and about 10% of values during 2010-2015. Water transparency has remained low enough (less than 20 cm mean Secchi readings) since 2020 that the KEA for Secchi depth has not been met. The community has shifted from more sensitive species to those that are more robust in the face of more turbid water conditions. Specifically, the community has shifted from coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum), Canadian waterweed (Eulodea canadensis), and naiads (Najas spp.) to milfoils (Myriophyllum spp.) and American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) with patches of naiads, coontail, or longleaf pondweed (Potamogeton nodosus). The Emiquon Preserve’s fish community continues to be dominated by native fish species. In 2023, the community was dominated by bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus), gizzard shad (Dorosoma cepedianum), and yellow bass (Morone mississippiensis) by numbers (Fig. 14). While mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were a large portion of the numerical catch for 2023 (1,906 individuals), this was largely due to a single mini fyke net that captured a spawn of mosquitofish in the northeast section of Thompson in September (1,833 fish). By biomass, the 2023 fish community sampled by our monitoring gears was primarily bowfin (Amia ocellicauda) 4 and yellow bass, with common carp (Cyprinus carpio), black crappie (Pomoxis nigromaculatus), gizzard shad, channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus), largemouth bass (Micropterus nigricans), white crappie (Pomoxis annularis), and white bass (Morone americana) contributing noticeable biomass as well. It is worth noting that yellow bass collections went from 0 in 2015 and 2 in 2017 to 3,310 in 2021 and 1,406 in 2023 (Fig. 23). As a small piscivore, this rapid population increase may impact other piscivore populations at Emiquon. The populations of several native species are abundant at Emiquon; however, it is worth noting that largemouth bass CPUE in Emiquon in 2023 was the lowest on record and was for the first time not significantly greater than LTRM-sampled largemouth bass CPUE in backwaters of the LaGrange pool of the Illinois River. Overwinter under-ice oxygen levels, when measured, have been good (i.e., between 7 and 10 ppm and between 75% and 110% saturation).
- Publisher
- Illinois Natural History Survey
- Series/Report Name or Number
- INHS Technical Report: 2024(25)
- Type of Resource
- text
- Language
- eng
- Sponsor(s)/Grant Number(s)
- The Nature Conservancy C12-52
- Copyright and License Information
- This document is a product of the Illinois Natural History Survey, and has been selected and made available by the Illinois Natural History Survey and the University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is intended solely for noncommercial research and educational use, and proper attribution is requested.
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