Protocol for monitoring aquatic invertebrates at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas: Version 2.1

Bowles, David; Morrison, Lloyd; Dodd, Hope; Rowell, Gareth; DeBacker, Michael; Hinsey, Janice; Cribbs, J.; Haack-Gaynor, Jennifer; Williams, Jeffrey

doi:10.36967/nrr-2282172

Ozark National Scenic Riverways (OZAR) and Buffalo National River (BUFF) were established to preserve and interpret the free-flowing Buffalo, Jacks Fork, and Current rivers. Much of their respective watersheds lie outside of park boundaries placing the water quality of the rivers and tributaries at risk. Wadeable streams of the Ozark-ian region, including those at BUFF and OZAR, are generally considered to be in good condition overall, but they are threatened by numerous stressors. Stream condition and ecosystem health are dependent on processes occurring in the entire watershed as well as riparian and floodplain areas; therefore, they cannot be manipulated independently of this interrelationship. Land use activities in the Ozarks Highlands, such as timber management, landfills, grazing, swine and poultry operations, urbanization, gravel mining, stream channelization, removal of riparian vegetation, and lead-zinc mining, threaten stream quality. Accordingly, the framework for aquatic moni-toring at OZAR and BUFF 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 moni-toring. The broad diversity of invertebrate species occurring in aquatic systems similarly demonstrates a broad range of responses to different environmental stressors. Furthermore, changes in the diversity and community structure of benthic invertebrates are relatively simple to communicate to resource managers and the public. Benthic invertebrate community structure can be quantified to reflect stream integrity in several ways, including the absence of pollution sensitive taxa, dominance by a particular taxon combined with low overall taxa richness, or appreciable shifts in community composition relative to reference condition. To assess the natural and anthro-pogenic processes influencing invertebrate communities, this protocol has been designed to incorporate the spatial relationship of benthic invertebrates with their local habitat, including substrate size and embeddedness and water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and turbidity). Rigid quality control and quality assurance are used to insure maximum data integrity. Detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supporting information are associated with this protocol.

Protocol for monitoring aquatic invertebrates at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, Missouri, and Buffalo National River, Arkansas: Version 2.1

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