Nah, it's not from the lake. The fill and front ends on those impoundments
are a specific proportion of clay so that it _doesn't_ do that. They're most
likely local ground water seeps. One way to tell is to look-in-the plant
community. Tell tale in this region is skunk cabbage and marsh marigold
(shade) or touch-me-not impatiens and golden alexanders (sun), I'm not sure
about down there.
What would be interesting is to do a "plankton tow" in the seep water to see
what organisms were coming out of the seep. You could use something as basic
as running the water over packed cheesecloth and then emmerse the cloth in
some water and look-in-it with a magnifying glass. Most interesting will be
under a scope though, if you have access to one.
My guess is that's what had the fish focused right there. There's little
cladocerans, ostracods, daphnia and all sorts of little inverts that are
feeding on the high quality foods such as diatoms forming from mineralization
from the ground water making their way over the top.
There is a huge loss in our aquatic systems when we destroy these habitats
(not to mention an unlooked-at ecosystem!), and I may spend my pHD looking at
how this has changed the structure and composition of mussels. We don't
develop on floodplains and have riparian setbacks where it's convenient which
is all great and good... But by building right to the edge of terraces, we've
trashed a huge portion of the cooridoor functionality ruining the upland
ground water connection in the hydrology and the genesis of high quality food
items that won't develop in other systems.
The lake was probably put in as a flood control structure / irrigation pool.
My guess is it was slash pine that was deforested in the watershed and they
were getting more than they bargained for in peak rain events, and then there
wasn't any control on the ground moisture after the rain events. The incision
is part legacy from the change in land use and is part due to the modification
of the base flow. In any case, it sounds like a classic disconnected micro
wetland.
Ray counts are good to find a "very" black or white crappie, but what do you
do when you have an intermediate? I like to look-in-the proportion of the
dorsal fin to the body (color patterns hold up too against this measure). The
black crappie's is significantly greater. Fishes of Ohio has a great diagram
where they show that the total length of the dorsal fin on a black crappie is
1 length from the eye to the first spine, the white is 1.5 lengths from the
eye to the first spine. Might be worth checking out from the library.
Fishes of Missouri also had a good diagram, but I can't remember if it focused
on the ray count or the proportion (book is-in-school). I just remember it
was good... As it is for a lot of things. I HIGHLY recommend this book. It's
inexpensive and covers Mississippi fishes with broad distributions. It's most
easily purchased from Jonah's Aquarium as it was issued by MO Dept of Game,
and Amazon etc don't seem to have it.. And Mark (Jonah) is just a good NANFA
type dude :)
Todd
________________________________
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org on behalf of Johnson, Daniel (DanJohnson)
Sent: Thu 7/13/2006 10:36 AM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: RE: NANFA-L-- Habitat questions and more fish pictures
Thanks Todd,
I was thinking "seep" might be the correct term.
The area where these seeps occur is probably a half mile +/- downstream
from the dam for Lake Livingston. I suppose that Lake might be a good
source for charging the ground water. It's kind of scary thinking that
this might be water seeping around the side from the Lake...
As for the crappie, I had thought that it might be a black, but I could
not convince myself that it had more that six dorsal spines. I looked
closely again after your comments and am still not sure. More recently
I have been saving full resolution copies of my pictures which would be
useful for helping this determination in the future. I plan to count
spines in the field for any future crappie catches as well.
--Dan
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org [owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org] On Behalf
Of Crail, Todd
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 10:20 PM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: RE: NANFA-L-- Habitat questions and more fish pictures
Hi Dan,
This might be a "seep" feature that's got a name that hopefully can be
provide by someone more familiar with your area.
However... It sounds like you've got some NASTY incision going on in the
mainstem bed. Has there been a lot of impervious development or
drainage improvement upstream? Or maybe that's just the way the streams
are there?
Good ol' Flash n Dash, no channel stability?
What it sounds like (if it were here in OH, MI, IN) is that you _had_
hydrologically connected wetland features on the historic floodplain,
but the high to peak discharge of the stream has downcut material from
the river channel so that the base flow channel of the stream is _far_
below the water table.
This forces the water to drip off the old floodplain (and sit fetid with
'skeeters that everyone whines about), rather than pull via capillary
action through the soils back into the river (water is a continuum when
connected, and this water would "disappear" much more quickly if the
channel wasn't whacked, getting rid of those 'skeeters everyone whines
about).
That make any sense? The river has the energy to cut down, and we just
haven't had enough time to watch it retake a new floodplain, which it's
doing right now by dripping / seeping in from the sides. The only thing
that'll stop it from downcutting (besides Dave Derrick ;) is bedrock...
And then it'll just blow wide and scour-in-the banks more violently.
The river ALWAYS wins.
Also, as a curiosity from the rest of your fabulous page... I think your
first "white crappie" is actually a black crappie. That dorsal fin is
occupying a lot of space on the back. I'm counting 2 more spiny dorsal
rays as well on that specimen... But it could all just be angles. Do
you still have the specimen?
Todd
The Downcut Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com <http://www.farmertodd.com/>
________________________________
From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org on behalf of Dan Johnson
Sent: Tue 7/11/2006 10:26 PM
To: nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org
Subject: NANFA-L-- Habitat questions and more fish pictures
Hi All,
Yesterday I went fishing in the Trinity River just below Lake
Livingston. I observed an interesting phenomena. I found Silverband
Shiners (Notropis Shumardi) in abundance in the river-in-points where
water was trickling down from the bank into the river. I didn't
investigate the source of the water. It may be a spring or may be
runoff from above. Is there a habitat term that describes this feature?
Also on a related question, what term describes the habitat where two
streams converge. Is this just called the "confluence of two streams?"
What if one of them enters the other-in-a much higher level and results
in the water from one stream pouring into the other? Is there a good
glossary around describes various aquatic habitat terms?
Heres a link to a few pictures and a list of all fish found yesterday:
http://www.io.com/~danjohns/fish/trinity.html
--Dan
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