Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Department

Mathematics

Additional Departmental Affiliation

Biology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

Abundance and biomass are commonly used for estimating stream fish assemblage and community structure, yet questions arise whether one measurement contains more information about an assemblage and how long sampling should be. Principal component loadings derived from fish biomass measurements taken from Buck Creek in Allen County Kentucky were statistically compared to corresponding measures of abundance to test for significant differences in the two data sets. A sliding window analysis based on abundance was used to determine the minimum number of years a stream should be sampled. Abundance and biomass were not found to be significantly different; correlations of the first three component loadings among data sets were highly significant. A six-year minimum for consecutive sampling years to estimate the total result of the eight-year study was found through subsampling of the abundance data, however, this number should not be thought of as a standard to use in all studies.

Advisor(s) or Committee Chair

Professor Doug McElroy

Disciplines

Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Download

Share

COinS