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AUTHORS: Nicholas Preville, Justin Redecki, Eric Snyder - Grand Valley State University
ABSTRACT: We examined the effects of flood control ‘improvements’ on 14 miles of the Coldwater River in Barry county, Michigan and established a long term sampling protocal for the river. These ‘improvements’ included riparian vegetation removal and river dredging and occured throughout 2014 and 2015. We found reduced instream habitat in these altered reaches along with reduced canopy cover and higher temperature fluctuations when compared to the un-altered sites. In addition, we found that the fish community at one of these altered sites was composed of almost entirely warm water species while the unaltered sites were composed of coldwater or transitional species. We found that the mussel community in one altered site was dominated by an invasive asian clam (Corbicula fluminea) which was not found in the un-altered reaches. In this study we not only establish base-line conditions for future comparisons as ecosystem improvements are undertaken, but also show how uninformed drain management techniques--specifically riparian removal and dredging--can have far reaching, but sometimes unexpected consequences.
