Assessing temporal shifts in lotic fish community structure in the upper Red River basin, Oklahoma

Abstract

A long-term fish community monitoring program was established by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation Streams Program in 2016. One of the primary goals of this program is to evaluate contemporary fish species distributions in Oklahoma and draw inferences regarding changes in those distributions over time. In 2016, fish community surveys took place from late June to early August at a total of 48 sites within the upper Red River basin. Compared to the most comprehensive historical sampling effort within the basin, contemporary surveys detected an additional eight species while three species historically present were not detected in 2016. Multivariate generalized linear model results indicated significant differences in community structure between historical and contemporary surveys. Univariate testing paired with Sum-of-LR analyses revealed differences in community structure were largely driven by increases in generalist fish species (e.g. Green Sunfish and Common Carp) and decreases in small-bodied specialist cyprinids (e.g. Chub Shiner). Although changes in species occurrences may be partially driven by differences in sampling methodology and effort, changes across multiple stream reaches likely reveal real trends.

Keywords

• Fish community change
• fish community management
• long-term biodiversity monitoring
• fisheries conservation