Monitoring programmes worldwide use biota to assess the “health” of water bodies. Indices based on are used describe change in status sites over time, identify progress against management targets and diagnose causes biological degradation. A variety numerical stressor-specific biotic indices have been developed response differences stressors among sites. Yet, it is not clear how variation press...

We determined the extent of macroinvertebrate recovery in a former pesticide-treated stream (FTS) relative to a reference stream (RS) by examining macroinvertebrates colonizing red maple (Acer rubrum L.) litter bags between 5 to 10 y following pesticide treatment. Mean abundance and biomass, variability in abundance and biomass (using the coefficient of variation [CV]), and assemblage structure...

The following four broad aims were addressed in this study. (1) To ascertain whether the characteristics of the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages within the different nearshore marine habitat types identified by Valesini et al. (2003) on the lower west coast of Australia differ significantly, and whether the pattern of those spatial differences matches those among the environmental characte...

The direct effects of a Virginia trout farm on benthic macroinvertebrates were examined using multiple approaches. Static laboratory tests with the amphipod, Hyallela azteca, were conducted with exposures to water taken from a spring and from effluent both above and below a sedimentation basin. Onsite mesocosms were constructed to expose previously colonized artificial substrates to the same tr...

Introduction: Rivers are complex linear features, (Petts, 1994). Assessing habitat quality and composition has traditionally focused on reaches of 10s metres, recently interest has moved to the mesoscale (100s of metres) e.g. Paraseiwicz (2001); Maddock and Bird (1996). Assessment at the catchment scale is the ultimate goal, e.g. European Water Framework Directive (Bragg et al, 2005) and will p...

Species diversity of metazoan bulk samples can be rapidly assessed using Cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) metabarcoding. However, in cases where only degraded DNA is available, e.g. from poorly conserved museum specimens, eDNA filtered from water or gut content analyses, universal primer sets that amplify only a short COI fragment are advantageous. Using PrimerMiner, we optimised two universal prim...

To obtain updated, more accurate estimates of macroinvertebrate standing stocks in Lake Michigan, benthic biomass (ash-free dry weight) was determined at 40 stations in the southern end of the lake in 1980 and 1981. Biomass generally increased as sampling depth increased from 16 to 30 m, peaked at depths of 30-40 m, and then declined at depths greater than 40 m. Mean total biomass at the 16-30 ...

Salinity is rising in many southern African and Australian rivers with unknown effects on aquatic organisms. The extent of spatial variation, at any scale, in salt tolerances is unknown and therefore whether data from one location should be used elsewhere. The acute tolerances (72-hour LC50) to sea salt of 49 macroinvertebrate taxa from the south-east of the Eastern Cape (SEEC), South Africa we...