Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program Long Term Resource Monitoring

Fish Reports

2007 Report

Preface

This report is a product of the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) for the Upper Mississippi River System. The LTRMP was authorized under the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (Public Law 99-662) as an element of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Environmental Management Program. The LTRMP is being implemented by the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, a U.S. Geological Survey science center, in cooperation with the five Upper Mississippi River System (UMRS) States of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers provides guidance and has overall Program responsibility. The mode of operation and respective roles of the agencies are outlined in a 1988 Memorandum of Agreement.

The UMRS encompasses the commercially navigable reaches of the Upper Mississippi River, as well as the Illinois River and navigable portions of the Kaskaskia, Black, St. Croix, and Minnesota Rivers. Congress has declared the UMRS to be both a nationally significant ecosystem and a nationally significant commercial navigation system. The mission of the LTRMP is to provide decision makers with information for maintaining the UMRS as a sustainable large river ecosystem given its multiple-use character. The long-term goals of the Program are to understand the system, determine resource trends and effects, develop management alternatives, manage information, and develop useful products.

Data (factual record) and information (usable interpretation of data) are the primary products of the LTRMP. Data on water quality, vegetation, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and fish are collected using a network of six field stations on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. Analysis, interpretation, and the reporting of information are conducted at the six field stations and at the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, the operational center of the LTRMP. Informational products of the LTRMP include professional presentations, reports, and publications in the open and peer-reviewed scientific literature.

This document is an annual status report containing a synthesis of data from fish populations and communities in the Upper Mississippi River System. This report satisfies, Task 2.2.8.4, Evaluate and Summarize Annual Results under Goal 2, Monitor Resource Change as specified in the Operating Plan for the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1993). This report was developed with funding provided by the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program. The purposes of this annual synthesis report are to provide (1) a systemwide summary of data in standardized tables and figures and (2) initial identification and interpretation of observed spatial and temporal patterns. The primary data summarized in this report are available from the Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center.

Suggested citation:

Bartels, A., M. C. Bowler, S. DeLain, E. Gittinger, D. Herzog, K. Irons, K. Mauel, T. M. O'Hara, E. Ratcliff, and J. Ridings. 2008. 2007 Annual Status Report: A summary of fish data in six reaches of the Upper Mississippi River System. U.S. Geological Survey, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin. Web-based report Savailable online at http://www.umesc.usgs.gov/report_publications/ltrmp/fish/2007/fish-srs.html (Accessed October 2008.)

Content manager: Jennie Sauer