Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas
Bowles DE. 2010. Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas
Dataset contains aquatic invertebrate data and associated physical habitat data from Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas. The framework for aquatic monitoring at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas is directed towards maintaining the ecological integrity of the rivers and tributaries in those parks. Invertebrates are an important tool for understanding and detecting changes in ecosystem integrity, and they can be used to reflect cumulative impacts that cannot otherwise be detected through traditional water quality monitoring. The broad diversity of invertebrate species occurring in aquatic systems similarly demonstrates a broad range of responses to different environmental stressors. Benthic invertebrates are relatively easy to collect, and they can be analyzed at many different levels of precision. They are sensitive to a wide variety of impacts that occur in the Ozark Highlands, such as changes in chemical constituents (including metals), hydrological alterations, sedimentation and bank erosion, and land use and other changes in the watershed.