Fish Populations in Forested versus Ungrazed Meadow Reaches in the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont Richard J. Horwitz and David Lieb 1. We analyzed the structure and stability of the summer fish communities of Chequamegon Bay, Lake Superior during 1973-1996 from data collected with bottom trawls at 39 stations. Fifty-three taxa were collected during the study, but we found that relative abundances for 16 taxa described most of the internal variability of the data for all taxa. No temporal patterns of change in the structure of either community were found, so we concluded that both communities were stable through the 24 years studied. Information on the existence, structure, stability, and habitats used by fish communities in the bay will be useful for assessing changes in those communities that result from changes in the bay or lake ecosystems.
Lakes represent a wealth of resources whose quality is maintained by human management.
An accurate understanding of the complex multispecies lake community is required in order to effectively manage at the ecosystem level. A survey of fish from 86 littoral zone habitat sites in the eastern Finger Lakes has made it possible to develop an IBI for these water bodies. The IBI consists of 13 metrics, modified after Karr's original and scaled between 0 and 100. Structure of the fish community was also examined to provide insight into ecological differences associated with the distribution of IBI values. Cluster analysis identified several distinct assemblages each dominated by either bluegills, bluntnose minnows, or smallmouth bass.