Large-scale effects of timber harvesting on stream systems in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, USA.
Using Basin Area Stream Survey (BASS) data from the United States Forest Service, we evaluated how timber harvesting influenced patterns of variation in physical stream features and regional fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages. Data were collected for three years (1990-1992) from six hydrologically variable streams in the Ouachita Mountains, Arkansas, USA that were paired by management regime within three drainage basins. Specifically, we used multivariate techniques to partition variability in assemblage structure (taxonomic and trophic) that could be explained by timber harvesting, drainage basin differences, year-to-year variability, and their shared variance components. Most of the variation in fish assemblages was explained by drainage basin differences, and both basin and year-of-sampling influenced macroinvertebrate assemblages. All three factors modeled, including interactions between drainage basins and timber harvesting, influenced variability in physical stream features. Interactions between timber harvesting and drainage basins indicated that differences in physical stream features were important in determining the effects of logging within a basin. The lack of a logging effect on the biota contradicts predictions for these small, hydrologically variable streams. We believe this pattern is related to the large scale of this study and the high levels of natural variability in the streams. Alternatively, there may be time-specific effects we were unable to detect with our sampling design and analyses.
Williams
Lance R
LR
Department of Biological Sciences, Mississippi State University, P.O. Drawer GY, Mississippi State, Mississippi 39762, USA.
Taylor
Christopher M
CM
Warren
Melvin L
ML
Clingenpeel
J Alan
JA
D000818:Animals; D001131:Arkansas; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D005399:Fishes; D016468:Forestry; D007448:Invertebrates; D011157:Population Dynamics; D014872:Water Movements; D014873:Water Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*
D014873:Water Pollutants