Project Supervisor
Dr. Craig Paukert

Funding
Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

Cooperators
Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks

Objectives
Develop long-term monitoring program for fishes in the Kansas River

Location
Kansas River in eastern Kansas

Completion
Ongoing

Progress and Results
Developing long-term monitoring of fish and wildlife populations is essential to determine future effects of disturbance, climate change, or other effects that may impact biodiversity.  We began a long term monitoring program of fishes in the Kansas River beginning March 2005.  Since March 2005, we have electrofished 36 stations 5 times per year within 6 reaches of the Kansas River.  These six reaches consist of sample sites near Kansas City, Lawrence below Bowersock Dam, Lawrence above Bowersock Dam, Topeka, Wamego, and Manhattan, Kansas.  All species of fish are weighed and measured at each site, and individually numbered t-bar tags are attached to selected species (blue suckers, shovelnose sturgeon, flathead catfish, channel catfish, and other large bodied fishes).  To date over 3,398 fish have been collected in this program.  Data from this program have been used by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, and in several research projects at Kansas State University.

Products
Eitzmann, J. L., A. S. Makinster, and C. P. Paukert.  2007.  Distribution and growth of blue sucker in a Great Plains, USA river.  Fisheries Management and Ecology 14:255-262.

Eitzmann, J., A. Makinster, and C. P. Paukert.  2006.  Blue sucker population dynamics in a shallow, Great Plains river.  American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Lake Placid, NY.

Eitzmann, J., A. Makinster, and C. P. Paukert.  2006.  Population dynamics of blue suckers in the Kansas River, Kansas.  31st Kansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Hays, KS. 

Eitzmann, J., A. Makinster, and C. P. Paukert.  2005.  Spatial and temporal patterns in blue suckers in the Kansas River, Kansas.  American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Anchorage, AK.