Great Smoky Mountains Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring
Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Great Smoky Mountains Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) contains over 3400 km (2000 mi) of pristine waterways. As streams drain the forested ecosystems of the Park, they integrate and reflect conditions in those ecosystems. Aquatic macroinvertebrates are subjected directly to changes in the physical and chemical conditions of the water, and because of this dependent relationship with the water they live in, aquatic macroinvertebrates are good indicators of ecosystem health. They are found in all aquatic environments, are less mobile than many other groups of organisms, and are of a size that makes them easily collectable. Moreover, benthic macroinvertebrates have been shown to be a cost-effective monitoring tool (Lenat 1988). Aquatic biota exhibit responses to a wide array of stressors, including those having synergistic or antagonistic effects. In the Smokies, these stressors include primarily acid deposition and forest changes due to exotic pest infestations. The overall goal of this program is to maintain a Park-wide system of benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring sites to track the environmental health of Park streams, and to detect and quantify changes in the environment. The specific objectives are: • to develop long-term aquatic biota data for large streams; • to determine correlations among macroinvertebrates, fish, habitat, and water quality monitoring data; and • to develop baseline data on aquatic macroinvertebrates.
- Type
- Project
- Authors
- Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Units
- GRSM
- Keywords
- Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, Benthic, GRSM, Inverts