Three Missouri prairie streams occurring within three agricultural land uses (pasture, forest and row crop) were sampled for aquatic macroinvertebrates over two seasons. Nine Rapid Bioassessment Protocol Metrics were used to assess the structure of the communities within each land use. Most sites were dominated by oligocheates and other collector/gatherers. Percent scrapers and percent shredders were the most variable measurements, while the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) and the Shannon Diversity Index (SDI) were the least variable. ANOVA showed no significant differences in taxa richness, EPT richness, HBI, percent oligocheates, percent scrapers, percent herbivores, percent shredders or SDI among land uses for both seasons, separately. ANOVA found that there were proportionally more square root transformed percent scrapers and herbivores at forest sites than there were at row crop sites for samples taken in the Spring. Paired t-tests showed a significant change in HBI over seasons for forest and pasture sites.
Keywords: Aquatic macroinvertebrates, Bioassessment metrics
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA