Fish Communities '" ^^e Great Plains Intermittent Prairie Streams, the 



^ 11 -IT 1- 1 /!/: t- //: ■ t J J species occurring most often were the brook 



Overall, 22 tisn species (16 native/6 introduced or . ,, , , , 



*• \c. ic TTT • J -J I _. jf stickleback, brassy mmnow and fathead minnow 



exotic) from 6,227 individuals were reported from ,, . ■' 



,1 ■•, , •, /T- ui T A J- AA A (Table 6). Using Montana's Prairie Fish IBI, 6 of 



all visited sites (Table 2, Appendix A). Average , ', . ^ 



I- , ■ ■ u V o J »u * the 17 tish sites were ranked non-impaired (good to 



fish species richness per site was 8, and the most ,,■•,•■■ • 



diverse sites were the 3 reaches of the Little excellent biological integrity), 6 were slightly 



Missouri River, with 14 species ( 1 1 natives). I'^P^""^'^ (moderate integrity) and 5 moderately 



r .u A ■ II » J . I/: e^^tnAo/\ impaired (poor biotic integrity) (Table 7). No sitcs 



Fathead minnows were collected at 16 of 17 (94%) ^ /^, * -"^ ' 



,- , •. -ru *!,- u tf f were ranked severely impaired by the Fish IBI. 



rish presence sites. 1 he next highest frequency or , ^, .^ r ./ 



/ir/^->\ • tu ■ t A A i- I * The O/E scores agreed with the IBI scores in most 



occurrence (FO) is the introduced green suntish at ^ ° 



in fn •» j*u J u- J ui I cases, except tor the smaller Prairie Intermittent 



1 or 17 sites, and the sand shiner and black ^ , ^ 



u iiu J ♦n *-i-7 * CI *!, J u u J 1 ■ Streams; the O/E ranked Campbell, North Fork 



bullhead at 9 of 1 7 sites. Flathead chubs and plains „ , h ' 



, ».u . ^ t- u II * J Moreau #1 and Crooked Creek as unimpaired (O/ 



minnows round out the top 6 fish species collected ^ ^ 



across all fish sites (Table 6). Fish species highly ^=^,^-^)' ^^''" ^^^ '^' '"^"'^^^ ^'^^"^ ^^ ^"s'^^'^ *« 



associated (100% of the time) with the Medium moderately impaired (181=62, 52 and 49, 



Prairie River Ecological System (AES BOOS) respectively). 



included sand shiner, flathead chub, plains minnow, 



channel catfish, white sucker, river carpsucker, '^'^'^ community structure in the Slim Buttes sites 



stonecat and western silveiy minnow (Table 6). responded to two primary landscape factors: the 



Table 6. Fish Species Presence, Frequency of Occurrence (FO) at all study sites, and for 



particular Aquatic Ecological Systems (AES) included in the TNC Slim Buttes surveys. 

 Blanks indicate absence from that stream type. 



11 



