Fish-community composition in Canacadea Creek, in the vicinity of Almond Lake, Allegany and Steuben counties, New York, 2000

Abstract

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, has been conducting biological surveys of the inflow and outflow streams of Almond Lake since the early 1980's. These surveys are made to identify possible detrimental effects as well as benefits of the reservoir and to better understand the aquatic communities in the vicinity of the lake at the present and over time. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Geological Survey jointly conducted a survey of the fish communities upstream and downstream of the lake in Canacadea Creek in September 2000. The fish communities upstream and downstream were compared and any differences or similarities seen in the communities were noted. This study found the fish communities to be in fair condition upstream and good condition downstream of Almond Lake, with Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) scores of 3.5 and 5.0, respectively. The habitat conditions of both reaches were of suboptimal quality, with a score of 14 upstream and 15 downstream as determined by use of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) Rapid Bioassessment Protocols, and are capable of supporting fish communities. The Shannon Index indicates species richness and evenness and was 1.87 upstream and 3.22 downstream of the lake, indicating the upstream reach is severely impacted and the downstream reach appears to be not impacted. The Jaccards Coefficient and the Index of Similarity statistically show these communities are similar with scores of 0.55 and 0.71, respectively. Of the 12 species captured upstream, 11 of those also were captured downstream along with 8 other species for a total of 19 species downstream.