An annotated list of the fishes known from the Dan River in Virginia and North Carolina Blue Ridge/Piedmont Provinces
Rohde, F.C.; Arndt, R.G.; Coughlan, D.J.; Smith, S.M.
Southeastern Fishes Council Proceedings 4(5): 1-10
2003
Accession: 037810628
Rohde et al. (2001) reported on the longitudinal distribution of fishes in the Dan River, located in the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces in Virginia and North Carolina, based on data from 298 collections made through the year 2000. The present paper is an annotated species list based on our previous research and an additional 1,064 specimens from eight collections made in 2001. Sixty-eight species and 47,526 specimens in II families were taken in the Dan River from 1968-2001. The family most commonly represented was Cyprinidae with 21 species and 29,562 specimens taken, followed by the Centrarchidae (12; 5,168), Percidae (7; 3,431), Catostomidae (11; 3,198), and Ictaluridae (9; 3,096). Six other families included eight species that comprised 6.4% (3,071 specimens) of all indi- viduals collected. Fourteen species and four families not taken in the above collections are added from the litera- ture and personal communications. In sum, we report a total of 82 species of fishes in 15 families from the Dan River. We divide the river into six sections, based on phys- iographic characteristics. These sections are, from upstream: Uplands (located at ca. rkm 320-312); Upper Gorge (ca. rkm 311-284); Lower Gorge (ca. rkm 283-266); Inner Piedmont (ca. rkm 265-197); Fault Basin (ca. rkm 196-112); and Piedmont Lowlands (ca. rkm 111-0). The number of species recorded per river section by us and from the literature, respectively, are 17, 36, 26, 49, 60, and 48. Fifty-one fish species are native, 24 are introduced, two species are native, but their populations have been augmented by stocking, and five are of undetermined origin. The Piedmont Lowlands has the greatest number of introduced species (19; 39.5%) and the Lower Gorge has the least number of introduced species (3; 11.5%). We present data on five VA/NC-listed species of concern.