Biological assessment of western USA sandy bottom rivers based on modeling historical and current fish and macroinvertebrate data.
Robert M Hughes, Meredith Zeigler, Shann Stringer, Gordon W Linam, Joseph Flotemersch, Benjamin Jessup, Seva Joseph, Gerald Jacobi, Lynette Guevara, Robert Cook, Patricia Bradley, Kristopher Barrios
Author Information
Robert M Hughes: Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, & Conservation Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
Meredith Zeigler: New Mexico Environment Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Shann Stringer: New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Gordon W Linam: Texas Parks and Wildlife, River Studies Program, San Marcos, Texas, USA.
Joseph Flotemersch: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Office of Research & Development, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA.
Benjamin Jessup: Tetra Tech, Montpelier, Vermont, USA.
Seva Joseph: New Mexico Environment Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Gerald Jacobi: New Mexico Highlands University, Las Vegas, New Mexico, USA.
Lynette Guevara: New Mexico Environment Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Robert Cook: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-Region 6, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Patricia Bradley: Tetra Tech, Montpelier, Vermont, USA.
Kristopher Barrios: New Mexico Environment Department, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
Biological monitoring is important for assessing the ecological condition of surface waters. However, there are challenges in determining what constitutes reference conditions, what assemblages should be used as indicators, and how assemblage data should be converted into quantitative indicator scores. In this study, we developed and applied biological condition gradient (BCG) modeling to fish and macroinvertebrate data previously collected from large, sandy bottom southwestern USA rivers. Such rivers are particularly vulnerable to altered flow regimes resulting from dams, water withdrawals and climate change. We found that sensitive ubiquitous taxa for both fish and macroinvertebrates had been replaced by more tolerant taxa, but that the condition assessment ratings based on fish and macroinvertebrate assemblages differed. We conclude that the BCG models based on both macroinvertebrate and fish assemblage condition were useful for classifying the condition of southwestern USA sandy bottom rivers. However, our fish BCG model was slightly more sensitive than the macroinvertebrate model to anthropogenic disturbance, presumably because we had historical fish data, and because fish may be more sensitive to dams and altered flow regimes than are macroinvertebrates.
References
Environ Manage. 2015 Jan;55(1):143-58
[PMID: 25387456]
