The Fishes of Champaign County: a Study of the Distribution and Abundance of Fishes in Small Streams

A careful account of the local and general distribution of the fishes of Illinois, their relations to their environment, and the function and relative importance of each species in the general system of aquatic life, was presented twenty years ago in a comprehensive work by Forbes and Richardson, which was based primarily on a state-wide ichthyological survey. In the present study the general methods employed in the former survey have been applied intensively to a small area, Champaign County, and use has been made of special methods which yield results more strictly quantitative. Inasmuch as there exist among the small stream systems of this county faunal differences comparable to those found among large stream systems, not only in Illinois but elsewhere as well, the intensive study of this restricted area has made it possible to formulate in a more precise manner some of the general conclusions previously reached by other workers on the distribution and abundance of fishes. The use of quantitative methods of collecting has made it possible also to arrive at new conclusions based on such data as may have passed unnoticed in a less detailed study or in streams too large to apply such methods.published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe