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Assessing methods to improve benthic fish sampling in a stony headwater stream

Pritchard, EG; Chadwick, DDA; Chadwick, MA; Bradley, P; Sayer, CD; Axmacher, JC; (2021) Assessing methods to improve benthic fish sampling in a stony headwater stream. Ecological Solutions and Evidence , 2 (4) , Article e12111. 10.1002/2688-8319.12111. Green open access

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Abstract

Electrofishing is a well-established and widely used method for surveying fish populations. Nonetheless, its effectiveness is impacted by numerous factors, including water chemistry, habitat type and fish species. Both physiological and behavioural responses make bottom-dwelling ‘benthic’ fish which lack swim bladders (e.g. European bullhead Cottus gobio) particularly difficult to survey by electrofishing. We compare the performance and practicalities of electrofishing for benthic fish at a rocky northern English headwater stream with two sampling methods originally designed for crayfish surveys; the triple drawdown method which involves repeated dewatering of a site, and the Pritchard Trap method which involves sunken traps filled with natural substrate that samples a small, fixed (0.25 m2) area of river bed. Both the Pritchard trapping and triple drawdown methods provided similar high-density population density estimates for bullhead which were at least 2.5–5 times higher than predicted from electrofishing derived sweep depletion curves. Electrofishing and the triple drawdown method are both resource-intensive, requiring expensive equipment and a team of trained operatives. These approaches also pose a risk to fish and non-target organisms. In contrast, Pritchard Traps provide a cost-effective passive, low risk survey method requiring minimal training and only one operative. Pritchard traps, therefore, show particular promise for benthic fish surveying and monitoring.

Type: Article
Title: Assessing methods to improve benthic fish sampling in a stony headwater stream
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1002/2688-8319.12111
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1002/2688-8319.12111
Language: English
Additional information: © 2021 The Authors. Ecological Solutions and Evidence published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: bullhead, density estimates, electrofishing, population demographics, Pritchard trap, sampling bias, triple drawdown
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10137128
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