Reporting on the condition of stream fish communities in the Canadian tributaries of Lake Ontario, at various spatial scales

A Review of Urban Water Body Challenges and Approaches: (1) Rehabilitation and Remediation

“…However, urbanization stresses stream ecosystems to a greater degree than most types of agriculture (Steedman 1988;Wang et al 2000;Rawer-Jost et al 2004;Trautwein et al 2011;Ligeiro et al 2013). In any case, cumulative effects of land cover changes, from natural vegetation to agriculture to urban, reduce the capabilities of streams to support their native biota (Stanfield and Kilgour 2006;Stanfield and Jackson 2011;Stanfield 2012).…”

“…Conversely, well-meaning mitigation projects are implemented at the site or reach scale in streams, lakes, and rivers, when many of the limiting factors are occurring at the watershed scale (e.g., Fausch et al 2002;Roni et al 2002;Scott et al 2002;Strayer et al 2003;Wang et al 2003Wang et al , 2011Moerke and Lamberti 2006;Beechie et al 2010;Regier et al 2013). This is not to say that local projects are meaningless because they can have cumulative effects, especially when it comes to watershed rehabilitation or managing stormwater (Stanfield 2012).…”

A Review of Urban Water Body Challenges and Approaches: (2) Mitigating Effects of Future Urbanization

“…Twelve different federal, state, university, and local institutions benefited from standard designs, indicators, sampling protocols, and data sharing that encompassed a total of 450 river and stream sites in the Willamette Basin, Oregon (Mulvey et al 2009). By using a random survey design, standard sampling methods, and a shared database among Ontario biologists (Toronto and Region Conservation Authority 2013), Stanfield (2012) had 704 stream sites along a forest to urban gradient available for analyses. Both these monitoring programs indicated urbanization effects on stream and river fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages that would have been extremely difficult to assess by any single institution.…”

Full Issue PDF Volume 39, Issue 6

“…Therefore, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality was able to infer that aquatic vertebrate assemblages in 62% and 30% of the basin's stream/river length were impaired by agriculture and urbanization, respectively. Using a random survey design and standard methods and indicators, Stanfield (2012) determined with high to medium confidence levels that the fish assemblages in 56%-74% of Lake Ontario's Canadian tributary segments were impaired or likely impaired. The Minnesota Fisheries Section surveys 650 lakes per year employing standard sampling methods and has surveyed a total of nearly 4,000 lakes (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 2014).…”