Stream Water Quality Responses in a Tornado Damaged Residential Watershed

Tornado damage has the potential to impact stream water quality from seeping anthropogenic compounds and scattered debris in affected areas. On 3 March 2020, an EF4 tornado (~282 km h-1 winds) hit Putnam County, Tennessee, destroying structures, trees, and removing vegetation across the area. This study assessed the influence of tornado damage on the water quality of streams draining the damaged area. We compared physiochemical conditions, fecal contamination, and chemical water quality measures for affected and unaffected watersheds over three months. We found differences between stormflow and baseflow conditions between watersheds, with elevated nutrients, dissolved metals, and fecal coliform bacteria after rain events. However, there were no significant differences between affected and unaffected watersheds for any parameter. Similarly, there were no relationships among nutrients or contaminants and distance to, or density of tornado wreckage. This study provides evidence that unlike other natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, tornados may have minimal effects on water quality when residential areas are hit, possibly due to the localized area of destruction that tornados leave. However, tornado influence may still be event-specific and depend on the type of structures damaged

The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat): Development, Applications, and Opportunities

Inland recreational fishing, defined as primarily leisure-driven fishing in freshwaters, is a popular pastime in the USA. State natural resource agencies endeavor to provide high-quality and sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers. Managers often use creel and other angler survey data to inform state- and waterbody-level management efforts. Despite the broad implementation of angler surveys and their importance to fisheries management at state scales, regional and national coordination among these activities is minimal, limiting data applicability for larger-scale management practices and research. Here, we introduce the U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat), a first-of-its-kind, publicly available national database of angler survey data that establishes a baseline of national inland recreational fishing metrics. We highlight research and management applications to help support sustainable inland recreational fishing practices, consider cautions, and make recommendations for implementation

A Bayesian multistate approach to evaluate movements of an invasive freshwater estuarine-opportunist

Coastal rivers and estuaries provide habitat and migratory corridors for freshwater estuarine-opportunists. We evaluated movement patterns of 61 blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus in the tidal York and Rappahannock rivers in Virginia, USA with acoustic telemetry from July 2015 to June 2016. To evaluate river-specific movements, we utilized a multistate Cormack-Jolly-Seber (CJS) model within a Bayesian framework to estimate probabilities of detection and transition (movement) among established salinity zones (i.e., tidal-fresh [0-0.5 ‰], oligohaline [>0.5-5 ‰], mesohaline [>5-18 ‰]). We considered flow as an environmental covariate. Despite high site fidelity in tidal-fresh zones, some individuals displayed movements into oligohaline and mesohaline habitats indicative of partial migration. Once downstream movement occurred, the probability of staying in the new salinity zone was higher than the probability of movements to other salinity zones. In the Rappahannock River only, movement upstream from mesohaline habitats was associated with below average flow. As flow increased, the probability of remaining in oligohaline and mesohaline zones increased. Our study shows blue catfish can move into downstream areas of tidal rivers with elevated salinities and that increased freshwater flow may allow them to remain in these habitats for extended durations.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author