2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
6/08/2017 | 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM | EVALUATION OF 20 YEARS OF LAND USE CHANGE ON BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND FUNCTION IN PIEDMONT STREAMS | 302A
EVALUATION OF 20 YEARS OF LAND USE CHANGE ON BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND FUNCTION IN PIEDMONT STREAMS
Long-term monitoring data represent a unique resource that can be applied to the management of freshwater ecosystems. We investigated the relationship between land use and stream benthic macroinvertebrate diversity and function by analyzing Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program data from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We examined 20 streams whose watersheds span a gradient of rural to urban land use over a 20-year time period. Comparable to other urban stream ecosystems, we quantified decreases in diversity (total, EPT) with increasing % impervious cover (IC) as well as changes in the ecological function. Shredders disappeared in systems with %IC > 15%; however, collector-gatherer, predator, burrower and clinger traits increased with increasing %IC. Diversity and function are further impacted by hydrologic variability due to changes in climate as seen in low %IC streams where EPT richness decreased after 2 droughts that occurred in the Piedmont between 2002 and 2009. This analysis illustrates the need to evaluate bioassessment data in a larger context than simply land use as well as the need to utilize longer term data sets for stream management decisions.
- C18 Biodiversity
- C08 Urban Ecology
- S26 Biological Success Criteria for Stream Restoration Project Monitoring: Are We Still Searching for Unicorns?
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Presenters/Authors
Anthony Roux
(), Mecklenburg County Storm Water Services, Water Quality Program, Charlotte, NC; William States Lee College of Engineering, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Tony.Roux@MecklenburgCountync.gov;
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Sandra Clinton, PhD
(), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, sclinto1@uncc.edu;
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