Fish Assemblages

Elaine Langone Center, Terrace Room

Aquatic systems in the eastern United States have been shown to have altered fish communities in areas where the flow path is directly altered by dams. Just below the confluence of the North and West branches of the Susquehanna River is the Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam, a seasonal inflatable dam near Sunbury, Pa. Ongoing studies of water temperature suggest that in the summer when the dam is inflated the River’s water surface profile is affected 2.4km upstream near the confluence of Chillisquaque Creek .# Compounding that effect is a coffer dam on the west side of the river to build the Route 15 bypass. We hypothesize that the hydrological variation influenced by the inflatable dam and the physical conditions correlated with flow regime, such as changing of water temperatures and velocity will negatively affect native fish assemblages. Near shore fish assemblages were sampled at randomly selected sites on the lower West Branch of the Susquehanna River. All electro-fishing efforts were conducted after dusk and when the water’s conductivity was at an optimum level. This was the first year of a multi-year sampling effort. Additional surveys will be conducted in 2018 and 2019 to assess the impacts of a seasonal inflatable dam on the fish communities of the lower West Branch Susquehanna River.