Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons^™

New Applications Of Radio Frequency Identification Stations For Monitoring Fish Passage Through Headwater Road Crossings And Natural Reaches, Ian R. Macleod, Charles J. Gagen

Faculty Publications - Biological Sciences

Within the Ouachita National Forest, roads and streams intersect each other thousands of times. Many of these road crossings alter stream hydrology and potentially limit longitudinal fish movement. To investigate the potential impacts of these road crossings on fish passage, we monitored movements of 3 native fish species (n = 2,171) individually tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in 2012 and 2013. We installed solar-powered RFID stations in 2 streams with road crossings and 2 reference streams without road crossings. Each of the 4 monitoring stations included a pair of antennas bracketing a road crossing (or similarly-sized natural reach) …