Urban and agricultural run off, treated sewage, and changes in hydrology all threaten water quality in the small prairie streams of Prairie Cluster parks. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of many biomonitoring techniques to assess stream water quality. Biomonitoring uses living organisms to measure stream water quality along a gradient of conditions from unimpaired (pristine) to severely impacted (heavily polluted and/or disturbed). As such, the National Park Service has implemented monitoring of aquatic macroinvertebrates to track trends in and identify conditions affecting stream water quality.

Monitoring questions and approach

1. What is the status of the stream macroinvertebrate community? What are the long-term trends?

   • Annual sampling to track the abundance and trends of macroinvertebrate species through time. Sampling techniques include Surber sampler for streams with riffle habitat and Hester-Dendy sampler for streams with silted bottoms.

2. What do changes in the macroinvertebrate community indicate about water quality?

   • Analyze species composition, species diversity, tolerance indices, and family abundance ratios to determine water quality.

3. What is the condition of habitat within each stream and how is habitat changing?

   • Habitat data is collected in conjunction with annual macroinvertebrate sampling so that species abundance, locations, and community structure can be tracked over time and correlated with habitat characteristics.

4. Can changes in population status or habitat quality be correlated with management regimes within the watershed?

   • Record management actions for correlation with community structure, habitat data, and estimates of water quality.

Protocol

• Peterson, J.T., W.M. Rizzo, E.D. Schneider, and G.D. Willson. 1999. Macroinvertebrate biomonitoring protocol for four prairie streams. U.S. Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center, Missouri Field Station, Columbia, MO. 46 p.

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Reports

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