Effects of Watershed Land Use on The Seasonal Energy Dynamics, Condition, and Parasite Communities of Stream Fish

While it has been demonstrated that degradation negatively impacts resident fish, the physiological mechanisms behind this trend are not well understood. Applying scientific techniques to increase our understanding of how habitat influences individual physiology and how that, in turn, influences fish population dynamics is becoming an important approach to environmental monitoring. In Chapter 2, I quantify how watershed land use influences the over winter energy reserves and health of a small stream fish and demonstrate that land use influences these metrics differently for females and males of the model species. In Chapter 3, I investigate the parasite communities of juvenile fish residing in impacted streams to identify potential bioindicators of habitat – and fish – health. These data are the first of their kind for both species, and are also the first time these techniques are used to address these unique research questions.