RE: NANFA-L-- Habitat questions and more fish pictures

Crail, Todd (tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu)
Tue, 11 Jul 2006 23:20:23 -0400

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

________________________________

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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