Since it was going to be up to 76 today and the rain is coming up from the south tonight and then cold weather from the Midwest, I decided to check out several of my guaranteed spots for certain species. Last time I looked, they were almost dried up. First was a large pond in the Green Swamp in Brunswick County, NC that was always good for lined topminnows and banded sunfish. I took Drewish there after Thanksgiving and then there were only 2 small pools. In one we could see a number of killies and we did seine up 4-6 bandeds plus some very chubby and happy redfin pickerels. Today, there was more water from the recent rains but the only fish I saw were pickerel. On to Juniper Creek, a Waccamaw tributary, and the type locality for the Carolina pygmy sunfish. When I described the fish back in 1986, I designated the middle portion of the creek as the type locality since, while they were not abundant there, the creek was sufficiently wide enough that I thought they would have no trouble surviving. The water was quite low today and I did not try it due to a couple of reasons - the main one being Bubbas in orange hats, carrying guns, spitting tobacco, and trying to shoot Bambi. So I headed to the lowermost bridge on the creek and which in the past has been the mother lode for them (in a tributary ditch and adjacent pond). There was absolutely nothing in the pond which had survived during previous droughts and nothing in the ditch except Gambusia. This ditch had dried up in the last drought but somehow pygmies found their way back into it. I wonder if Riverbank Zoo still has some fish ( that were taken from there) that we can reintroduce? Well, at this point I almost quit and headed home but instead headed towards South Carolina. On the way, I stopped at a creek where in 2002 I had collected golden topminnows - some folks from the Raleigh Aqaurium Society had collected some in March that year nearby which was the first record from the state. Finally, some success as I collected 4 of them. Five or so years ago (I forget), Rudy Arndt and I found another strong population of the Carolina pygmy sunfish in a very nicely vegetated roadside pond near the Waccamaw River west of Little River, SC. Lots of pygmies, bluespots, topminnows (both species) and least killifish. In the intervening time, I visited it about once a year. Last Christmas when I made a return visit, I found that the developer had completely filled in the two ponds along the road. He did leave another degraded pond in which I found a couple of individuals but I was pissed. Today I re-visited the area and did not find any in the short time I was there. BUT I did find 2 on the otherside of their property and in a ditch that is/will be connected to the Waccamaw when we get sufficient rain. There are a number of ponds in this development which is still not developed. I hope to contact them and check them out. Sorry for the length.

This ditch had dried up in the last drought but somehow pygmies found their way back into it. I wonder if Riverbank Zoo still has some fish ( that were taken from there) that we can reintroduce?

This is so sad to hear. As far as I know Riverbanks should still have the line that came from that location. At least they did when I left there 3 years ago. Jen is now the Aquarium Supervisor there (she was one of the aquarists when we hosted the convention in 2004). If you need her contact info or want me to get in touch just PM me and I will be glad to help with this.

The aquarist who takes care of the natives here and I are trying to get some of the little buggers here to broaden the breeding program. We have some construction going on now but in 6 months or so we should have room for a few tanks. At least that way we will have a back up if any thing happens to the groups in Columbia.
Clark

I've had the experience of drought-induced disappearance of streams when looking for flame chubs (Hemitremia flammea) aroud north 'bama the past two summers. When you pull up to an historic collection site and the creek is dry, with tire tracks and well-developed terrestrial grasses in the gravel, it's pretty obvious the fish are gone. How quickly could a stream fish re-colonize such a stream? I don't know. We found other streams that were very low, with hundreds of fish bunched up in remaining pools. The water snakes were there, too... It makes sampling very easy, toss out the seine and pull in several dozen fish with little effort. Only once did we find flame chubs in such a setting, whether by chance or some local effect. I'd guess that other uncommon endemics suffer disproportionately from these events, too.

I believe there is a nice Haag and Warren paper about recolonization (by mussels maybe) post drought that is pretty recent. Can't imagine what some of middle and east TN was like. Honestly kind of glad I wasn't there to experience first hand.

Even up in Maryland, especially the eastern shore, I can share in your drought woes. Several of our long term 'best' quality sites were standing pools or dry this year. Even a couple 2nd order streams were dry by August and September. Larger streams that typically would be too deep to wade were sampleable. Drought effects on aquatic communities are definately something we are looking into and reporting.

Here's one take on stream recolonization after a drought by fish and crayfish in Mississippi, by Adams and Warren:

 StreamRecolonization_ja_adams006.pdf   1.74MB   55 downloads

Can't imagine what some of middle and east TN was like. Honestly kind of glad I wasn't there to experience first hand.

I hate to make a TVA Dam plug, but the rivers with minimum flow agreements are doing great. I couldn't believe how much water was in the Duck in Nov. It was as high as it is at spring baseflow.

Take a look at the hydrographs on the USGS site over the last 31 days for TN and then if you want to see something that is disgusting, compare against GA. The rivers with the big impoundments are maintaining 20% of the historic mean, but the free flowing rivers are all over the place. And then again, look at GA where there aren't any agreements. Yucko.

I do doubt the pressure of Atlanta is going to get this into effect where it's really needed in the Appalachicola drainage, but man it would be nice. Right now it's at like 4% of the mean. It's bad enough the channel is so incised... Now the sloughs in the panhandle are sitting meters above the water table. I bet you could punch a hole through the confining layers and drain the suckers in a day. Prolly same crap Fritz is seeing in NC and SC too. From what I understand Duke Power is starting to see the light. But I doubt GA Power and Electric is gonna buy into this in the near future.

This doesn't work out west (what a mess), so don't think I'm getting all Dam Happy But it might be a model going forward for the wet east to mitigate impervious development and historic deforestation, and keep that water around when you need it, esp on small streams in valleys that have mine damage or fauna depauperated by some other process.

You already know Eddie's arguments for the rehabilitation of tanasi. Just add oxygen and voila!

Up is Down!

Todd

I believe there is a nice Haag and Warren paper about recolonization (by mussels maybe) post drought that is pretty recent. Can't imagine what some of middle and east TN was like. Honestly kind of glad I wasn't there to experience first hand.

Even up in Maryland, especially the eastern shore, I can share in your drought woes. Several of our long term 'best' quality sites were standing pools or dry this year. Even a couple 2nd order streams were dry by August and September. Larger streams that typically would be too deep to wade were sampleable. Drought effects on aquatic communities are definately something we are looking into and reporting.

Just before Christmas Dustin and I were able to sample in the Lumber River near Nichols, SC. A wide and usually deep river. But now quite wadeable. I had always suspected that the thinlip chub might be there since it has been found further upstream in NC. Not only was it present but it was the most commonly caught fish. So droughts do have some pluses.

Here's one take on stream recolonization after a drought by fish and crayfish in Mississippi, by Adams and Warren:

 StreamRecolonization_ja_adams006.pdf   1.74MB   55 downloads

That's the one Bruce!

I ment more the other non-impounded streams especially on the plateau that in a normal year go underground but I'll make that plug if you don't want to Todd. Minimum flows are a godsend throughout the state of Tennessee along with the steps to oxeygenate the water and it amazesme that every state doesn't have them yet. I was shocked and somewhat saddened when I was seeing talks at last years SD-AFS meeting about studying fish communities below dams in GA under a hypothetical minimum flow regime. On amazingly diverse and imperile laden river too! If I recall Duke has some individual minimum flow agreements.

Rehab AND dispersal (when you shoot them out of a canon in the spring halfway to chattanooga). Though minimum flows are great he and I both feel that the maximum is a substantial limiting factor. Hydropeaking at 23,000 CFS...

Rehab AND dispersal

Yeah, that really changed the way I think about a lot of things. I was already there with mussels. Okay, so it was a really bad thing for 1860's aquatic communities... But we don't have 1860's communities any more.

Some sucker species are still getting a bad deal out of it... But with the work I've seen in the Detroit River where they're putting in spent coal nuggets (clinkers they're called) to restore whitefish and sturgeon habitat, there's no reason they can't do this and engineer extra shoals where disruption to coarse sediment conveyance needs remediated. I think this is particularly keen for species like robust redhorse that theoretically would have used Piedmont riffles for spawning that are now blocked and submerged, but stay in the lower portions of the river during the rest of the year.

Don't have any idea what to do about blue sucker in the Tennessee though, since it seems they NEED the hyrdaulics enormous floods produce to chew everything up. I think they're just kinda SOL.

Todd

Since Todd and I brought up the topic of the "good" environments minimum flow regulated rivers have created in the drought stricken SE and lightly touched on the exampled he and I know a great deal about compared to others I thought I'd throw up this article too. Sorry it's the draft version that is all I have electronically but it's since been in press.

Todd's point about the presence of large river suckers in relation to their habitat and hydraulic needs are highlighted in this paper too.

However, even in these types of systems there is evidence of impairment due to drought, as seen in TVA RRI scores in the early part of the decade.

Hooray, I finally get to read it! Thanks for posting it Matt.

Todd

Very very sad to hear Fritz, especially since I visited most of those sites with you earlier this year. I found it to be a fishy wonderland down there, it's disheartening to hear of it going away

I took Jen and Christine from Riverbanks to get some Carolina pygmies from our local population near Columbia on the Friday before Christmas. Got about 30 in an hour. The Friday after Christmas, Dustin and I went with Christine and Christy (Riverbanks) to the SC upstate to get some Fieryblack shiners and Rosyside Dace for their display. Did pretty well there but had a lot of rain.