Inventory and Biological Monitoring of Fishes

This report summarizes a three-year (2002-2004) inventory of fishes in six parks of the National Capital Region: Antietam National Battlefield, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historic Park, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Harpera??s Ferry National Historic Park, Monocacy National Battlefield, and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. Qualitative collections of fishes were conducted at 98 locations that were selected to provide thorough geographic coverage of each of the parks and to encompass the diversity of aquatic habitats within and immediately adjacent to the parks. Quantitative collections of fishes were conducted at 55 randomly-selected sites to allow for unbiased estimation of fish populations and biotic integrity of streams within the parks. Qualitative sampling resulted in the capture and identification of 19,310 fishes representing 11 families and 63 species. We captured and identified 12,085 individual fishes representing 10 families and 43 species during quantitative sampling. Hybrid taxa were also recorded in the genera Esox and Lepomis. Parks in the National Capital Region harbor much of the fish diversity currently documented in the Potomac River drainage. Some Coastal Plain species were absent due to the small number of park watersheds in this physiographic province. Only one native species, the mummichog (Fundulus heteroclitus), occurs within smaller streams of the geographic region surveyed in this study that was not collected in the targeted parks. Larger riverine species (e.g., Carpiodes cyprinus) may also occasionally move into streams within park boundaries. Index of biotic integrity (IBI) scores calculated from fish assemblage data at quantitative sites indicate a range of ecological conditions within the parks. Sixty-seven percent of sites were rated in poor or very poor condition relative to regional reference streams. These data will form the basis of a monitoring program for water resources within the National Capital Region.

                                            [
  "010:24"
]
                                        

                                            {
  "fn": "NPS IRMA Help",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:NRSS_DataStore@nps.gov"
}
                                        

                                            [
  {
    "@type": "dcat:Distribution",
    "title": "ncrn_fish_inv_data.zip",
    "format": "ZIP",
    "mediaType": "application/zip",
    "description": "Legacy holding from Data Store: ncrn_fish_inv_data.zip",
    "downloadURL": "https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/DownloadFile/370291?Reference=1041587"
  }
]
                                        

                                            [
  "ANTI",
  "Antietam National Battlefield",
  "Biota",
  "CHOH",
  "Chesapeake and Ohio Canal National Historical Park",
  "Fish",
  "GWMP",
  "George Washington Memorial Parkway",
  "HAFE",
  "Harpers Ferry National Historical Park",
  "Inventory",
  "MONO",
  "Monocacy National Battlefield",
  "NCRN",
  "National Capital Region",
  "National Capital Region Network",
  "WOTR",
  "Wildlife",
  "Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts"
]
                                        

                                            [
  "010:118",
  "010:119"
]
                                        

                                            {
  "name": "National Park Service",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}
                                        

                                            [
  "Geospatial"
]