Effects of Agricultural Development on Stream Water Quality, Habitat Quality, and Fish Communities of the Lower Mississippi River Basin in Southeast Arkansas

The transition from bottomland forest to row-crop agriculture has transformed the landscape across the Lower Mississippi River Basin. This change has altered water and habitat quality as well as the biota within. The effects of row-crop agriculture are fairly well known in other parts of the United States; however, the Lower Mississippi River Basin is relatively unstudied. In addition, effects over the change of seasons are also unstudied. We examined the effects of row-crop agriculture and seasonality on water quality, habitat quality, and fish communities. We followed the USEPA Rapid Bioassessment Protocol to assess 1^st and 2^nd order streams for water quality and habitat, while fish communities were evaluated using mini-fyke nets. Several water and habitat quality parameters were significantly different between seasons and land-use type; however, very few fish community metrics were significantly affected by season and land-use.