Standardizing Assessments Across Aquatic Habitats: Considerations in Characterizing Fish Assemblages in Small Rivers

High quality aquatic habitats support a rich fauna In South Carolina. The State Wildlife Action Plan recommends actions to conserve 170 species that are directly dependent on freshwater habitats for most or all of their life-stages. A statewide wadeable stream assessment has already been completed under the plan, results from which suggest that significant diversity resides in larger streams and small rivers. In a new project, we have proposed to scale the statewide assessment up to small rivers. These habitats, in between wadeable streams and large rivers, pose challenges for estimating fish assemblage richness and abundance because appropriate methods may vary considerably by site conditions. We will evaluate AFS standard methods in these habitats to estimate gear bias and species detection probabilities, with the goal of developing species richness and abundance estimates that can be compared across the state. The stream and small river assessments are foundational parts of a landscape approach that allows us to proactively address cumulative impacts to ecological integrity, integrated across taxa and geography. We can address the needs of all priority species that depend on aquatic systems by building a true mountain-to-the-sea, headwater-to-estuary framework for addressing conservation.