Wisconsin DNR: Fish Collection in WI: Guidelines for Assessing Fish Communities of Wadeable Streams in Wisconsin v2.0
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Official Method Name
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Guidelines for Assessing Fish Communities of Wadeable Streams in Wisconsin v2.0 |
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Current Revision
| v2.0, 2018 |
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Media
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Surface Water (Waterbody type - Wadeable stream) |
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Instrumentation
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Backpack Electrofishing Unit |
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Method Subcategory
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Population/Community |
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Method Source
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Citation
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Brief Method Summary
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This standard operating procedures (SOP) document pertains to the collection of fish in wadeable streams for the calculation of one of the WDNR’s fish Index of Biotic Integrity (fIBI). Individual fish IBIs are developed for warmwater streams (Lyons 1992a), coldwater streams (Lyons et al. 1996), headwater streams (Lyons 2006), and cold transitional and warm transitional streams (Lyons 2012). For purposes of the fIBI, a wadeable stream is a stream that is wadeable (generally <1.5 meters deep) in greater than 50% of the study reach during base flow. A separate SOP outlines procedures for collecting fish in nonwadeable rivers to calculate the large river fish IBI (Lyons et al. 2001).
To calculate the fIBI for biologic assessments samples must be collected in a consistent, standardized process from standard habitat types. Sections B-F describe the standardized fish data collection methods from wadeable streams. Additional recommended methods for non-standard fish collections are discussed in Section G. |
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Scope and Application
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This standard operating procedures (SOP) document pertains to the collection of fish in wadeable streams for the calculation of one of the WDNR’s fish Index of Biotic Integrity (fIBI). This SOP also pertains to the collection of fish samples to calculate additional metrics useful for describing fish composition besides the fIBI. Additional metrics are calculated by the WDNR Fisheries Management database based on the observed assemblage. For example, metrics such as the percent tolerant or percent intolerant individuals, catch per unit effort, species length-frequency distributions, among others, have been used to evaluate the status or trends of waterbodies by researchers and resource managers for decades. These metrics can be useful for analyzing fish assemblage composition depending on the specific study objectives. |
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Applicable Concentration Range
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Interferences
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Quality Control Requirements
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Sample Handling
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Maximum Holding Time
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Relative Cost
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Sample Preparation Methods
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