Establishing baseline data for aquatic resources in national parks of the Northern Great Plains Network

Rust, Jill

Exploratory studies are often needed to establish baseline characteristics with which to monitor changes whether they’re from natural causes, anthropogenic disturbances, or management decisions. Furthermore, an effective aquatic monitoring program not only evaluates chemical and physical parameters of the water, but also provides habitat and invertebrate characteristics. This research effort was conducted to (1) provide baseline descriptions of macroinvertebrate communities within aquatic systems of national parks and (2) select optimal metrics for use in future monitoring efforts by national park staff. Chemical, physical and habitat parameters were taken from small to medium-sized streams, large rivers, springs, and bison watering holes during the summers of 2004 and 2005. Invertebrate samples were also collected from rivers, streams and watering holes using a D-frame sweepnet. Spring invertebrate samples were taken using a hand-net. Metrics were chosen based on their high discriminatory power using Kruskall-Wallis F statistics and correlations to chemical, physical and habitat data using Pearson correlations. Ten metrics were chosen for each system from each community structure category (composition, richness, tolerance, functional feeding guilds, and habit guilds). Familial diversity (79 families) was highest in small and medium streams. Rivers contained 61 families, springs had 31, and bison watering holes contained 25. Of all invertebrate taxa found, 87% were of class Insecta. Diptera and Coleoptera were the most prevalent insect orders. Collector-gatherers were the most abundant feeding guild in all systems. Springs contained the highest percentage of shredders (mean=19%), while rivers and streams had the highest percentage of collector-filterers (mean=17% and 18%, respectively). Stock ponds contained the highest percentage of predators (mean=38%). Habit guilds displayed greater variation between systems than feeding guilds. Clingers were highest in streams and rivers (mean=30% and 33%, respectively). Sprawlers were most abundant in springs (mean=39%), and swimmers were highest in stock ponds (mean=53%). Stream metrics included percent non-insecta, EPT: EPT+Chironomidae, EPT richness, Shannon-Wiener Diversity, habit guild diversity, percent sprawlers, functional feeding group diversity, predator richness, Chironomidae richness and HBI. River metrics included percent EPT, percent Chironomidae, EPT richness, total richness, non-insecta richness, clinger richness, swimmer richness, collector-gatherer richness, collector-filterer richness, and modified HBI. Stream and river metrics were strongly correlated with physical/chemical and habitat measurements. Spring metrics included percent EPT, percent Chironomidae, EPT richness, Chironomidae richness, percent climbers, percent gliders, percent collector-gatherers, percent shredders, percent predators, and HBI. Stock pond metrics included percent dominant, percent Chironomidae, non-insecta richness, Margalef diversity, Chironomidae richness, habit evenness, clinger richness, functional feeding diversity, shredder richness, and tolerant taxa. Spring and stock pond measurements displayed weaker discriminatory power and fewer significant correlations with physical/chemical and habitat parameters. Several metrics (EPT metrics, Chironomidae metrics, HBI, Shannon-Wiener diversity, total richness, collectorgatherer richness, collector-filterer richness, predator richness, swimmer richness, clinger richness) were common across systems and are commonly used by other monitoring agencies as monitoring tools. Developing a monitoring network requires detailed objectives and expectations. These data may be applied to future monitoring of chemical, physical, habitat, and invertebrate vital signs in each park. Optimal metric sets recommended from this effort are those likely to detect change in water quality and habitat.

Establishing baseline data for aquatic resources in national parks of the Northern Great Plains Network

Collections