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Abstract

Village creek is a lowland stream lying in the Mississippi Embayment in Randolph, Lawrence and Jackson counties in northeastern Arkansas. The stream has been channelized in Randolph and Lawrence counties as have most of its tributaries. The Jackson County portion of the stream has not been channelized. Twelve sites were sampled seasonally by seining along Village Creek and its tributaries. In addition to seasonal work, six sites were sampled from one to three times each by several methods. A total of 8000 specimens was collected by all means used (7754 at seasonal sites and 246 at supplemental sites). Forty-two species were collected from 16 families. Two species not previously reported from the System were collected in this study namely Hiodon alosoides and Pimephales vigilax. All42 of the species collected in the study were represented in Jackson County while only 24 species were collected in Lawrence and Randolph counties. Members of the family Centrarchidae were the most commonly collected group (44% of specimens) whereas the most commonly collected species was Gambusia affinis (29.6% of specimens). Some of the fish species in the System have shown resilience to stream alteration, domestic sewage, industrial and agricultural runoff and dumping of refuse. However, the future success of some species (e.g., Opsopoeodus emiliae, Notropis maculatus, Notropis texanus, Lythrurus fumeus, Elassoma zonatum and Etheostoma gracile) will depend on the protection of and sustainable use of the natural resources in the watershed.

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