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POTENTIAL USE OF BENTHIC ALGAE AS HYDROLOGIC INDICATORS FOR HEADWATER STREAMS: SOME DATA EXPLORATION
Citation:
GREENWOOD, J. AND K. M. FRITZ. POTENTIAL USE OF BENTHIC ALGAE AS HYDROLOGIC INDICATORS FOR HEADWATER STREAMS: SOME DATA EXPLORATION. Presented at North American Diatom Symposium, Mobile, AL, October 31 - November 04, 2005.
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
Benthic algae were sampled to determine the utility of algal communities as indicators of hydrologic regime as part of a national survey involving habitat measurements and community assessments. Streams from four forests near Cincinnati were classified according to hydrologic permanence as ephemeral, intermittent or perennial. Ordination of algal community data did not produce visibly distinct clusters by hydrologic permanence. However, similarity analysis revealed significant differences among all hydrologic categories. Ephemeral streams supported the lowest total densities and biomass but the highest cyanobacteria densities. Intermittent and perennial streams were both dominated by diatoms and contained similar algal cell densities and biomass. Indicator species analysis suggested that some diatom taxa may distinguish ephemeral and perennial streams. Results suggest that benthic algal data may be useful in assessing hydrologic regimes of headwater streams.