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Presented at the NABS Annual meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2002
in Large River Ecology
DEVELOPMENT OF A BIOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM FOR NONWADEABLE RIVERS IN MICHIGAN.
K.J. Wessell1, R.W. Merritt1, K.W. Cummins2, J.G. Opdyke3, and J.D. Allan3. 1Department of Entomology, Michigan State University, E. Lansing, MI 48824, 2Humboldt State University, California Cooperative Fishery Unit, Arcata, CA, 3School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
There are relatively few state or federal programs designed to monitor nonwadeable rivers. Many of the more traditional population and community level metrics used in wadeable stream assessment may not be appropriate for assessing these systems. We sampled nonwadeable rivers in Michigan to determine which macroinvertebrate metrics respond most precisely to various anthropogenic impacts, as well as physical and chemical differences between reaches and rivers. Additionally, we were interested in how closely functional group surrogates track measured ecosystem parameters. Reaches were approximately 2000 m long, and macroinvertebrate samples were taken at transects every 200 m with a D-frame aquatic dip net. In this preliminary stage of the project, we were interested in 1) habitat-specific invertebrate community variation among reaches of the same river; 2) variation among rivers; and 3) functional feeding group dose-response relationships across a gradient of anthropogenic impacts and habitat differences. Preliminary data will be reported on which metrics may be most useful for assessing nonwadeable river ecosystem integrity.
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