Fluvial geomorphic evolution and stream fish community trajectories in the Bayou Pierre, Mississippi

Changing environments place stresses on ecosystems, and are contributing
to widespread losses of biodiversity and ecosystem function. Comparisons
of historical and contemporary data offer considerable utility in
understanding how ecosystems respond to, adapt to, or recover from
changing environments. Stream fishes offer a particularly interesting
study system for this topic, as streams are naturally dynamic environments
and human needs have placed increasing pressure on aquatic systems. The
effects of fine sediments on stream fishes and aquatic ecosystems more
broadly have been well studied. Yet studies from fluvial geomorphology
have resulted in models of watershed morphological evolution which
encompass far broader processes and changes to aquatic systems. Our
dataset integrates a fluvial geomorphic approach to characterize stream
channel and habitat evolution over a four decade period in the Bayou
Pierre, Mississippi, an ecological approach to study related change in
stream fish communities in the same watershed, and analyses linking the
two. Fluvial geomorphic processes were characterized both from remote
sensing data sources for historic and contemporary time periods, and local
fish habitat data for contemporary time periods. Historical fish community
data were extracted from museum records, and contemporary fish community
data were collected via sampling for fishes at the same localities as
historic efforts using similar methods.