Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Streaming Fish Sampling: Abundance Versus Biomass Measurements And Determining A Minimum Number Of Years To Sample, Sarah B. Vied

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Abundance and biomass are commonly used for estimating stream fish assemblage and community structure, yet questions arise whether one measurement contains more information about an assemblage and how long sampling should be. Principal component loadings derived from fish biomass measurements taken from Buck Creek in Allen County Kentucky were statistically compared to corresponding measures of abundance to test for significant differences in the two data sets. A sliding window analysis based on abundance was used to determine the minimum number of years a stream should be sampled. Abundance and biomass were not found to be significantly different; correlations of the …