My work focuses on three very closely related species that occupy the New River. Two are native and the third was introduced and a potential big problem for the natives. As Josh alluded to, this weekend we ventured to two very different parts of the New River drainage. The first stream (Lick Creek) contains the introduced species, the variegate darter. As Josh mentioned its flow regime varies seasonally. Here is a picture of what it looked like in June.
Josh also posted a picture of Sandstone Falls, which is in the New River Gorge. These falls as well as others within the gorge have historically isolated the New River from all other Ohio River drainages. Isolation is one of the main ingredients to speciation, which is represented by the New's eight endemic fish species. However, people like to move and tend to take species with them, which has resulted in the New's high percentage of introduced species (over 50%). More to come later in the semester.
1 comment:
Interesting to see photo of Lick Creek, a stream that Paul Leonard and I sampled in 1982 and 1983 as part of a study evaluating the Index of Biotic Integrity -- new at the time
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