The ‘‘pond-and-plug’’ meadow-restoration technique, in which ponds are formed by excavating the floodplain and plugging incised channels with the excavated material, is commonly used in montane meadows in the Sierra Nevada.
To evaluate effects on aquatic habitat and communities, federal researchers studied seasonal movement and survival of fish, as well as food web structure, in ponds created using pond-and-plug restoration on a tributary to the North Fork Feather River, northern California. The consistent presence of three native fish species studied – speckled dace, mountain sucker, and rainbow trout – indicated that year-round water availability supported their survival. Using stable isotope analysis, researchers found that food web structure among sampled ponds was similar and that ponds with higher macrophyte cover had more diverse basal resources. Findings suggest that pond-and-plug techniques can provide habitat for native fishes that can tolerate less-than-optimal water temperatures and dissolved oxygen concentrations.
Tennant, L., Eagles-Smith, C.A., Willacker Jr., J.J., Johnson, M.J., 2020, Fish Habitat Use and Food Web Structure Following Pond-And-Plug Restoration of a Montane Meadow in the Sierra Nevada, California: Northwestern Naturalist, v. 102, no. 1, p. 30-42, https://doi.org/10.1898/1051-1733-102.1.30
Related Content
Contaminant Ecology Research Team (FRESC)
Related Content
- Science
Contaminant Ecology Research Team (FRESC)
The FRESC Contaminant Ecology research program evaluates the distribution, movement, and ecological effects of environmental contaminants across the landscape and strives to provide relevant science in support of natural resource conservation, management, and decision making.
Get Our News
These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.