Habitat use by the fish assemblages of two chalk streams

Abstract

Patterns of habitat use by fish assemblages in two chalk streams in southern England were examined to identify species preferences with respect to major habitat gradients. Both study sites although differing in some physical habitat characteristics, mainly channel width, water temperature and instream cover, could be similarly arranged along a continuum extending from erosional to depositional habitats. Twelve fish species were collected from stream surveys conducted during July 1993. The habitat was partitioned into six fish species associations that could be assigned to three habitat guilds: depositional (Barbatula barbatula, Gasterosteus aculeatus and Anguilla anguilla), riffle (Leuciscus leuciscus, Thymallus thymallus and Salmo salar) and generalist (Salmo trutta, Phoxinus phoxinus, Gobio gobio, Cottus gobio, Lampetra planeri and Pleuronectes flesus). At low to moderate densities the different species associations were collected in the same habitat patch, but at higher densities there was a clear tendency to mutual avoidance. In particular, large trout appeared as strong interactors that tended to exclude other species from their territories. We hypothesize that the fish assemblage of the Mill Stream and Bere Stream have partitioned the habitat in such a way as to minimize potential competition.