Fish species of greatest conservation need in wadeable Iowa streams: status, habitat associations, and effectiveness of species distribution models

Effective conservation of fish species of greatest conservation need (SGCN) requires an understanding of species-habitat relationships and distributional trends. Thus, modeling the distribution of fish species across large spatial scales may serve as a potentially valuable tool for conservation planning. Our goals were to evaluate the status of 10 Iowa fish SGCN in wadeable Iowa streams and test the effectiveness of Iowa Aquatic Gap Analysis Project (IAGAP) species distribution models. We sampled fish assemblages from 86 wadeable stream segments in the Mississippi River drainage of Iowa during 2009 and 2010 to provide contemporary, independent fish species presence-absence data. Frequencies of occurrence in stream segments where species were historically documented varied from 0.0% for redfin 1 Author for correspondence 2 Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University 3 U.S. Geological Survey, Iowa Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management, Iowa State University 4 U.S. Geological Survey, Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, University of Idaho