Abundance Trends and Drivers of Change in Freshwater Fish Communities of the New River Basin

Habitat destruction/alteration and non-native species are widely considered the two most serious threats to biodiversity within freshwater ecosystems, which are among the most threatened in the world. I examined the effects of these factors, specifically focusing on land use and non-native species as drivers of abundance patterns of native fishes in the highly invaded and anthropogenically impacted New River basin (NRB) in the Appalachian region of the United States. In chapter 2, I examine current native and non-native species abundance patterns related to the highly variable land-use mosaic present across the NRB, with specific focus on the species-specific effects of intensive land-use practices (agriculture and urbanization) at varying spatial extents (upstream watershed, upstream riparian, and local riparian). In chapter 3, I investigate historical context of basin-wide and site-level abundance spread and decline of natives and non-natives in the upper and middle New River basin (UMNR) over the past 60+ years. Finally, in chapter 4, I partition the variation in native species abundance explained separately by land use and non-native species to determine which factor might be most influential in describing abundance distributions of UMNR native fishes over the past 20+ years. My results indicate widely varying responses of native species to various combinations of intensive land use and non-native species across contributing watersheds and widespread biotic homogenization and native species declines over the past 60+ years. These declines include reductions in unique communities and endemic species provided little consideration or protection under current conservation law. I suggest potential avenues for improvement of conservation actions to help preserve these unique species and communities based on their responses to various land-use and non-native species stressors. My study framework should be broadly applicable to other drainages and should provide opportunities for early identification of potential native species declines and the stressors that may be contributing to them.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Fisheries and Wildlife Science

Department dc:contributor.department

Fish and Wildlife Conservation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• Sleezer, Logan J.

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Angermeier, Paul L.
• Frimpong, Emmanuel A.

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Brown, Bryan L.

• land use
• non-native species
• conservation
• fishes

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:26743

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/99149