Northern Great Plains Small Perennial Stream - Draft Account
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General Description
This ecosystem is found throughout the drainages of the Northwestern Great Plains Ecoregion of Montana. Habitats are small to medium (3rd-4th order, <100 river miles long, average wetted width = 5m) perennial warm-water streams, or upstream reaches above Medium Prairie Rivers. In the low elevation (750-1000m) areas, these are low gradient, meandering streams with a typical stream morphology consisting of long runs and continuous standing pools (1-1.5 m depth. Moderate gradient sections may contain infrequently spaced riffles that sometimes maintain wetted connectivity throughout the year. Riffle habitats may be absent in incised and degraded channel sections. Substrate characteristics are typically cobble/pebble riffles (when present) to silted runs and deeply silted pools. The C005c is a prairie stream system within 5 river miles from a confluence with a larger river (at least 2 stream orders larger) and contains a biological fish community that is significantly affected by the large river connectivity.
Diagnostic Characteristics
The diagnostic resident fish community is dominated by the Core Prairie Stream Assemblage and occasionally members of the Medium Warmwater and Creek Chub Assemblages (especially near the confluence areas with a medium praire stream, C005c). A fairly clear Great Plains stream in far eastern Montana with weedy pools could contain brook stickleback, northern redbelly dace or brassy minnow, but for the typical turbid Great Plains stream, the community indicator species include fathead minnow, lake chub, flathead chub, white sucker, creek chub, and introduced species like black bullhead, carp and green sunfish. If the stream has gravel substrate in the riffle areas there will likely be longnose dace, and if there are large cobbles or large woody debris, stonecat as well. A severely impaired C005 community will be dominated by green sunfish and other members of the Sunfish Assemblage including plains killifish, black bullhead and fathead minnow. The Macroinvertebrate Community consists of members of the Large Prairie River and Prairie Stream Assemblages in the riffle/run habitats with the Large River Slow Current Assemblage in the slow current areas, side-channels and vegetated pools. The community indicator species are characterized by the crustaceans (Hyalella and Gammarus), damselfly genera (Coenagrion/Enallagma spp. and Enallagma civile), many genera and species of the water boatman (Corixidae: Sigara grosslineata, Trichocorixa and Corisella), snails (Physella, Gyraulus, and Stagnicola) and mayflies (Caenis and Callibaetis); and caddisflies (Hydropsyche morosa group, and Cheumatopsyche), and riffle beetles (Dubiraphia and Microcylloepus) in the cobble riffles. The giant floater mussel (Pyganodon grandis) is common in the small Northern Glaciated Ecoregion streams, but is rarely encountered in the Powder River Basin streams.
Range
The Great Plains Prairie Stream type occurs throughout the Great Plains region of North America within the Missouri River Drainage. In the Northwestern Great Plains of Montana, we have a diversity of this type including the Otter, Sarpy, Armells, Beauvais, Big and Little Porcupine, Pumpkin, Cabin, Cedar, Sweeny, Sandstone, Glendive and Hanging Woman Creeks.
Density and Distribution
Spatial Pattern
Linear
Management
Small dams, water diversions, stock ponds and introduced gamefish species have had the most significant negative impact on this community (Winston et al. 1991). Other threats include heavy cattle intrusions to the riparian areas, which causes bank erosion and subsequent sedimentation and siltation. Anywhere dams occur, even small stock pond earthen dams, the downstream reaches are affected by altered water temperatures, unnatural water level fluctuations, and changes in sediment and nutrient transport.
Species Associated with this Community
- How Lists Were Created and Suggested Uses and Limitations
Animal Species Associations
Please note that while all vertebrate species have been systematically associated with vegetation communities, only a handful of invertebrate species have been associated with vegetation communities and invertebrates lists for each vegetation community should be regarded as incomplete. Animal species associations with natural vegetation communities that they regularly breed or overwinter in or migrate through were made by:
- Using personal observations and reviewing literature that summarize the breeding, overwintering, or migratory habitat requirements of each species (Dobkin 1992, Hart et al. 1998, Hutto and Young 1999, Maxell 2000, Werner et al. 2004, Adams 2003, and Foresman 2012);
- Evaluating structural characteristics and distribution of each vegetation community relative to the species' range and habitat requirements;
- Examining the observation records for each species in the state-wide point observation database associated with each vegetation community;
- Calculating the percentage of observations associated with each vegetation community relative to the percent of Montana covered by each vegetation community to get a measure of "observations versus availability of habitat".
Species that breed in Montana were only evaluated for breeding habitat use. Species that only overwinter in Montana were only evaluated for overwintering habitat use. Species that only migrate through Montana were only evaluated for migratory habitat use. In general, species are listed as associated with a vegetation community if it contains structural characteristics known to be used by the species. However, species are not listed as associated with a vegetation community if we found no support in the literature for the species’ use of structural characteristics of the community even if point observations were associated with it. If you have any questions or comments on animal species associations with vegetation communities, please contact the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Senior Zoologist.
Plant Species Associations
Please note that while diagnostic, dominant, or codominant vascular plant species for a vegetation community have been systematically assigned to those communities and vascular plant Species of Concern were systematically evaluated for their associations with vegetation communities, the majority of Montana’s vascular plant species have not been evaluated for their associations with vegetation communities and no attempt has been made to associate non-vascular plants, fungi, or lichens with vegetation communities. Plant species associations with natural vegetation communities were made in a manner similar to that described above for animals, but with review of Lesica et al. (2022) and specimen collection data from the Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. If you have any questions or comments on plant species associations with vegetation communities, please contact the Montana Natural Heritage Program's Program Botanist.
Suggested Uses and Limitations
Species associations with vegetation communities should be used to generate potential lists of species that may occupy broader landscapes for the purposes of landscape-level planning. These potential lists of species should not be used in place of documented occurrences of species or predicted habitat suitability models (this information can be requested at: https://mtnhp.mt.gov/requests/), or systematic surveys for species and onsite evaluations of habitat by trained biologists. Users of this information should be aware that the land cover data used to generate species associations is based on satellite imagery from 2016 and was only intended to be used at broader landscape scales. Land cover mapping accuracy is particularly problematic when the vegetation communities occur as small patches or where the land cover types have been altered over the past decade. Thus, particular caution should be used when using the associations in assessments of smaller areas (e.g., evaluations of public land survey sections). Finally, although a species may be associated with a particular vegetation community within its known geographic range, portions of that vegetation community may occur outside of the species' known geographic range.
Literature Cited
- Adams, R.A. 2003. Bats of the Rocky Mountain West; natural history, ecology, and conservation. Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. 289 p.
- Consortium of Pacific Northwest Herbaria. https://www.pnwherbaria.org/ Last accessed May 30, 2025.
- Dobkin, D. S. 1992. Neotropical migrant land birds in the Northern Rockies and Great Plains. USDA Forest Service, Northern Region. Publication No. R1-93-34. Missoula, MT.
- Foresman, K.R. 2012. Mammals of Montana. Second edition. Mountain Press Publishing, Missoula, Montana. 429 pp.
- Hart, M.M., W.A. Williams, P.C. Thornton, K.P. McLaughlin, C.M. Tobalske, B.A. Maxell, D.P. Hendricks, C.R. Peterson, and R.L. Redmond. 1998. Montana atlas of terrestrial vertebrates. Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, University of Montana, Missoula, MT. 1302 p.
- Hutto, R.L. and J.S. Young. 1999. Habitat relationships of landbirds in the Northern Region, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station RMRS-GTR-32. 72 p.
- Lesica P., M. Lavin, and P.F. Stickney. 2022. Manual of vascular plants, 2nd Edition. Brit Press. 779 p.
- Maxell, B.A. 2000. Management of Montana's amphibians: a review of factors that may present a risk to population viability and accounts on the identification, distribution, taxonomy, habitat use, natural history, and the status and conservation of individual species. Report to U.S. Forest Service Region 1. Missoula, MT: Wildlife Biology Program, University of Montana. 161 p.
- Werner, J.K., B.A. Maxell, P. Hendricks, and D. Flath. 2004. Amphibians and reptiles of Montana. Missoula, MT: Mountain Press Publishing Company. 262 p.
- Species of Concern Associated with this Community
Amphibians
References
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