Temporal variation of habitat structure and fish communities in intermittent headwater prairie streams in west central Missouri

This project followed the EPA Rapid Bioassessment for Wadeable Streams protocol to document physical habitat characteristics, water quality and fish communities at sixteen sites on Osage Prairie Conservation Area (CA) (n=6), Taberville Prairie CA (n=5) and Wah'Kon-Tah Prairie CA (n=5). The primary objective of this study was to describe the seasonal shifts in physical habitat structure, water quality and fish communities at each CA. Also the differences that exist between CAs were described. A total of 285 individuals representing 9 species were collected during this study. Shannon diversity index (H') was calculated at each CA during each sampling season for fish communities, as well as the Morisita's Index of Similarity. The modified F-IBI was used to calculate a score for each CA during each sampling season. Throughout this study the greatest difference documented between each CA was the inorganic substrate components coupled with instream variables of wetted width and depth.