2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/26/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Linking water quality to benthic macroinvertebrates in dammed streams: Implications for restoration | Virtual Platform
Linking water quality to benthic macroinvertebrates in dammed streams: Implications for restoration
Across the northeastern US, small, obsolete dams impair natural stream dynamics by interrupting flows, altering habitats, and impacting water quality. Benthic macroinvertebrates may be particularly sensitive to changes in water quality, but studies linking dam-induced water quality impairments and macroinvertebrates are limited. We related water quality to macroinvertebrate compositional and functional metrics to understand mechanisms of biotic response and set expectations for restoration. We sampled macroinvertebrates within upstream, impounded, and downstream reaches in 12 streams across multiple years and collected corresponding continuous temperature and dissolved oxygen data. Dams varied in their water quality impacts, with downstream warming evident at 7 of 12 sites. Of those 7 sites, 5 exhibited a decrease in coldwater taxa downstream of the dam. Lotic assemblages were more correlated with catchment-scale factors (e.g., watershed size, percent forested; R2 = 0.64, 0.51) than with reach-scale water quality. Observed differences among reaches were primarily due to loss of common stream taxa in impoundments, resulting in stark assemblage differences. Results suggest biotic response to water quality impairments from dams may be overwhelmed by landscape-scale characteristics. Understanding the mechanisms of response may help prioritize and inform future dam removals.
- Connectivity
- Monitoring
- Connectivity
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Presenters/Authors
Katherine Abbott
(), University of Massachusetts Amherst, kmabbott@umass.edu;
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Allison Roy
(), U.S. Geological Survey, Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Massachusetts Amherst, aroy@eco.umass.edu;
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Michael Cole
(), Cole Ecological, Inc., mikebcole@comcast.net;
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Kristopher Houle
(), Massachusetts Division of Ecological Restoration, kris.houle@mass.gov;
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Keith Nislow
(), Northern Research Station, U.S.D.A. Forest Service, University of Massachusetts Amherst, knislow@fs.fed.us;
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