Stream Temperature in a Watershed Context: Implications for Cold and Warmwater Fisheries Management
We examined relationships between landscape physiographic variables and summer stream temperatures in the Cheat River watershed, West Virginia, to develop statistical models for characterizing thermal patterns at the stream segment and watershed scales and to examine the relationship between modeled thermal patterns and the distribution of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) and brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) at these scales. Our study produced three important results. First, we developed a model to accurately predict weekly mean July temperature (WMJT) in this system using easily...
