Seines will be utilized to sample the creek channel. At three stations, as defined above, the seine will be dragged through the water column along the creek bank and substrate for a length of five meters. Seines are carefully withdrawn from the creek and the collected fish are carefully extracted from the seine into a processing bucket. The fish are then removed by dip nets and individuals are identified and measured. Abundance and total biomass by species are enumerated.
All data is recorded on a standardized field sheet.
One sample run will be conducted each month from April to October. Analytical Methods Biological data collected at wetland study sites are compared to data collected at the wetland reference sites. Multimetric data analysis techniques are employed to examine attributes and variables of biological data and these metrics are combined into a quantitative final index. A metric is a parameter or variable that represents some feature, status, or attribute of biotic assemblage, chemical state, or physical condition. In a multimetric approach, several different metrics are chosen in order to effectively capture and integrate information from individual, population, guild, community, and ecosystem levels and processes.