A beforeafter, controlimpact study was conducted to evaluate brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) response to the removal of debris dams and woody debris from an ice-storm-impacted stream system in the eastern Adirondack Mountains in New York State. A total of 10 reach pairs were established on two first-order streams, two second-order streams, and one third-order stream, all within the same watershed. Analyses, conducted separately for each stream order, used linear contrasts to compare differences in trout abundance between reference (upstream) and removal (downstream) reaches 1 month and 1 year after the manipulation. We expected trout abundance to decrease in removal reaches relative to reference reaches; however, responses varied temporally and with respect to stream order. Trout abundance had not changed significantly 1 month after removal. One year after removal, relative trout abundance had increased in the third-order stream, decreased in the second-order streams, and exhibited no significant change in the first-order streams. In areas with abundant boulders and preexisting habitat complexity, accumulated woody debris may have limited influence on trout abundance.
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Warren et al. (2003) studied this question.
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