Impoundment fish entry — source check

Checked October 4, 2026. Randomly sampled entry: entry/impoundment-fish-land-use-study.html.

Primary source: Zampella, Bunnell, Laidig and Procopio, Variations in Shallow, Coastal Plain Lake Communities Associated with Land-Use-Degradation Gradients and Thresholds (Pinelands Commission, December 2007).

The report’s methods and Table 1 (PDF pp. 5–7) describe thirty selected impoundments, five watershed alteration groups, pH and conductance monitoring in 2003–2005, and a twenty-four-site water-quality subset in 2006. Median pH was 4.4 in Group I and 6.6 in Group V; median specific conductance was 51.8 and 104.4 µS/cm, respectively. These are cross-sectional group summaries.
Fish results and Tables 11–12 (PDF pp. 21–23) list twenty fish species and 8,300 fish caught. Of these, 2,588 could be classified only to genus and were left out of the species analysis. Restricted-native examples include mud sunfish, blackbanded sunfish and swamp darter. Overall species richness correlated positively with altered land, while restricted-native share correlated negatively and nonnative share positively. Among four richness measures, only nonnative-species richness differed significantly across land-use groups.
The report defines “restricted native” by Pinelands distribution and “nonnative” as native outside the Pinelands (including introduced species), so “nonnative” does not necessarily mean foreign to New Jersey.

The entry remains unmapped because the study has thirty sites and no single representative field stop. The paper lists sampling coordinates but those do not verify safe visitor access.