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IMPERVIOUS SURFACE AREA AND BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE RESPONSE AS INDEX OF IMPACT FROM URBANIZATION ON FRESHWATER WETLANDS
Citation:
Hicks, A. IMPERVIOUS SURFACE AREA AND BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE RESPONSE AS INDEX OF IMPACT FROM URBANIZATION ON FRESHWATER WETLANDS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/R-95/074.
Description:
The use of benthic macroinvertebrates to monitor water quality and ecological integrity is not as well established for wetlands as it is for rivers, streams and lakes where this form of biomonitoring is now a formalized procedure. he impact to wetlands from urbanization (as measured by the degree of impervious surface within the watershed) on benthic macroinvertebrates was determined in the spring of 1994 in twelve wetlands in Middlesex County, Connecticut. he sites were selected to represent a gradient of urban impact. atershed and wetland characteristics were recorded from which a summarized Habitat Assessment score was derived for each wetland. esults of this study support the concept that benthic macroinvertebrate response to the degree of imperviousness is a useful index of impact from urbanization on freshwater aquatic bed wetlands.