Long-term trend in the aquatic macroinvertebrate community of the Mancos River at Mesa Verde National Park: Aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring 2008-2019
Stumpf S and Ploughe L . 2024. Long-term trend in the aquatic macroinvertebrate community of the Mancos River at Mesa Verde National Park: Aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring 2008-2019. Science Report. NPS/SR—2024/209. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado. https://doi.org/10.36967/2306058
The Southern Colorado Plateau Inventory and Monitoring Network monitors status and long-term trends in the aquatic macroinvertebrate community and associated habitat in order to track changes in the ecological integrity of stream ecosystems. This report investigates changes in key aquatic macroinvertebrate community indices and physical habitat metrics collected from two long-term monitoring sites on the Mancos River in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Results suggest that both monitoring sites have experienced periods of thermal and hydrologic stress. These stresses occur concurrently and are reflected in key metrics describing the aquatic community of the Mancos River. Daily stream temperature maxima were in exceedance of the State of Colorado’s aquatic life use water quality standard during the summer and fall months (June–September) across several years (2010–2014). These thermal exceedances match timing of low stream flows on the river. Sensitive taxa such as Trichoptera and taxa assigned as intolerant to perturbation exhibited significant negative trends in abundance, as did Trichoptera richness. These declines are likely attributed to thermal and hydrologic stress. Data analyzed using the state of Colorado’s multi-metric index indicate that both monitoring sites showed signs of impairment over the course of this study (2008–2019). Multiple index metrics contributed to impairment and support trend analyses demonstrating that declines in sensitive intolerant taxa, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera taxa (EPT) and clingers (trichopteran habit) contributed to the overall impairment of monitoring sites. As the effects of climate change increase over the coming decades, future management action on the river should include monitoring of thermal and hydrologic stress to better understand community responses to those stresses as well as their effects on the outcome of future management actions.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Stumpf, Stacy; Ploughe, Laura
- Date of Issue
- 2024-11
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- DOI
- 10.36967/2306058
- Units
- MEVE , NRSS , SCPN
- Keywords
- Aquatic Macroinvertebrates, climate change, Colorado, ecology, Mesa Verde National Park, monitoring, river, science, Southern Colorado Plateau Network, stream temperature, trend, Trichoptera, water, water extraction, water quality