Shenandoah National Park benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring protocol: Version 3.0

Wofford, John; Demarest, E.; Voshell, J.

This document culminates an attempt to update a legacy National Park Service (NPS) monitoring protocol to current monitoring protocol standards (Oakley 2003). A legacy protocol, as discussed here, is a protocol with a history predating the National Park Service Natural Resource Inventory and Monitoring Program (I&M) which was established by Congressional mandate in 1998. Legacy protocols may have objectives, sampling designs, and other procedures that may be dated and may not follow current I&M guidance. Updating the protocol generally entailed providing more thorough written documentation on protocol procedures, goals, and objectives. No consideration was given to altering historic methods, procedures, or sampling designs. The primary purpose of this document is to clearly articulate how the protocol has been implemented for the past thirty years. Much of this document was based upon the Shenandoah National Park Long-term Ecological Monitoring Plan (LTEM) which was developed in the late 1980’s (Voshell and Hiner 1990). The original protocol was updated to this current form by cooperators (R. Voshell) who were involved in the development of the original LTEM program and NPS staff (J. Wofford and E.D. Demarest). E.D. Demarest has participated with implementation of this monitoring protocol since 1991. During the mid-1980’s Shenandoah National Park (SHEN) identified benthic macroinvertebrates as an important component of ecosystem monitoring for park management. A more recent assessment confirmed this determination when the National Park Service’s Mid-Atlantic Inventory and Monitoring Network (MIDN), also identified benthic macroinvertebrate communities as an important ecosystem “vital sign” for SHEN (Comiskey and Callahan 2008). A benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring protocol was initiated at Shenandoah National Park in 1987. Conceptually, the purpose of the protocol is was to determine the status and trends of stream health in SHEN in order to aid in park management decision making. The protocol entails annually monitoring macroinvertebrates at 28 “primary” sites distributed across the park and loosely stratified by park district, underlying geologic formations, and elevation. Each year, an additional six sites are selected from a list of 40 “secondary” sites that are monitored on a three to nine year rotation. Monitoring occurs during spring seasons. At all sites, three quantitative samples of the benthic community are collected from riffles with a Portable Invertebrate Box Sampler (PIBS) or Surber sampler. One qualitative sample is also collected from non-riffle stream habitats (inclusive) with a D-net. In the laboratory, all the captured macroinvertebrates are identified to the lowest practical taxonomic level. From the resulting taxonomic data, a number of metrics can be calculated to assess stream health. In addition to collecting macroinvertebrates, measures of water chemistry, stream discharge, and stream habitat are also collected during every site visit.

Shenandoah National Park benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring protocol: Version 3.0

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