Fish abundance and habitat relationships in forest and grassland streams, northern Hokkaido, Japan

The relationships between habitat variables and population densities of masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou), rosyface dace (Leuciscus ezoe), Siberian stone loach (Noemacheilus barbatulus) and wrinklehead sculpin (Cottus nozawae) were examined by data collected at 55 reaches in forest and grassland streams in northern Hokkaido, Japan. Regression analysis suggested that salmon and dace densities were affected by water temperature (negative for salmon, positive for dace) and structural habitat factors (woody debris for salmon, pools for dace). Salmon density was higher in forest reaches than in grassland reaches, whereas dace density was higher in grassland reaches, suggesting that the removal of riparian forest had raised water temperature and allowed upstream invasions by dace. In contrast to salmon and dace, neither the density of loach nor sculpin differed between the forest and grassland reaches. For their densities, a negative effect of each on the other was most important, suggesting a strong effect of interspecific competition between loach and sculpin on their distributions. However, regression models also suggested that substrate heterogeneity mediated the outcome of their interspecific competition. On the basis of the results, a scenario is predicted for a fish-assemblage change with a typical land-development process in Hokkaido, and the importance of leaving or restoring riparian buffer for conservation and restoration of stream habitat is emphasized.