Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | J | Journal of the Tennessee Academy of Science

Summer microhabitat of the endangered bluemask darter Etheostoma (Doration) sp.

Article Excerpt
JAMES B. LAYZER AND TONY R. BRADY U S Geological Survey, Tennessee Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, Tennessee Technological University. Cookeville, TN 38505 Tennessee Cooperative Fishery Research Unit, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TN 38,505 ABSTRACT--The bluemask darter Etheostoma (Doration) sp. is an endangered species endemic to the Caney Fork River drainage upstream of Great Fails, in central Tennessee. We determined microhabitat use of bluemask darters from June through September 2000 by underwater observation in 3 streams. Nearly all (99%) of the 273 fish observed were found in areas where near-bottom water velocity was < 5 cm/sec, and 95% of the fish were found over sand-dominated substrate at depths between 27 and 84 cm. The low availability of clean sand substrate may limit availability of summer habitat for bluemask darters. Land-use practices that increase siltation, and the increasing demand for offstream uses of water could further reduce available habitat and jeopardize the continued existence of bluemask darters.

**********

The bluemask darter Etheostoma (Doration) sp. was once considered a subspecies of E. stigmaeum (Howell, 1968). Layman (1994) reevaluated the subgenus Doration and concluded that the bluemask darter is a distinct species. Bluemask darters have been collected...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!