Bio-monitoring of Water Quality Using Aquatic Invertebrates and In-stream Habitat and Riparian Condition Assessments: Status Report for Wilson's Creek and Skegg's Branch, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, Missouri 1988-2004
Peitz DG and Cribbs JT. 2005. Bio-monitoring of Water Quality Using Aquatic Invertebrates and In-stream Habitat and Riparian Condition Assessments: Status Report for Wilson's Creek and Skegg's Branch, Wilson's Creek National Battlefield, Missouri 1988-2004. National Park Service. Republic, MO
The purpose of this report is to summarize aquatic invertebrate monitoring data collected from 1988-2004, and the results of the in-stream habitat and riparian condition assessments. Benthic invertebrates are the most common group of organisms used to assess water quality (Rosenberg and Resh 1993). They are useful as indicators because they represent a diverse group of relatively long-lived, sedentary species that react strongly and often predictably to human influences on aquatic systems (Cairns and Pratt 1993). The objectives of this bio-monitoring program are to determine the annual status of stream invertebrate communities in order to assess the overall biotic integrity of Wilson’s Creek and Skegg’s Branch and to detect changes through time in aquatic invertebrate communities. The in-stream habitat and riparian condition assessments will give us a better understanding of the environment in which the aquatic communities have evolved.