Spatiotemporal variation in the long-term fish assemblages of Buck
Creek, Delaware County, Indiana
Abstract
Buck Creek is a spring-fed, cool-water tributary of the West Fork White
River, Indiana. The Muncie Bureau of Water Quality sampled fishes and
monitored water temperature in Buck Creek annually from 1986-2018. For
this study, we utilized long-term fish data from the Bureau of Water
Quality to evaluate spatial and temporal changes in the fish assemblages
of Buck Creek in Delaware County, Indiana, USA. Non-metric
multidimensional scaling (NMDS) was used to describe changes in the fish
assemblages over space and time. Linear mixed effects models were used
to evaluate the relationship between environmental factors and the fish
assemblages. The spatial NMDS results were separated in distinct groups
of upstream and downstream assemblages. This was characterized by a
shift of headwater specialists shifting to large-river species. The
temporal NMDS results were separated into distinct annual assemblages.
This was characterized by a drop in pollution-tolerant species and an
increase in intolerant species. Our findings indicate that the fish
assemblages have improved in Buck Creek over space and time.