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DESIGN AND INDICATOR CONSIDERATIONS FOR A PROBABILISTIC SURVEY OF USA GREAT RIVERS: MISSOURI, MISSISSIPPI, OHIO
Citation:
DESIGN AND INDICATOR CONSIDERATIONS FOR A PROBABILISTIC SURVEY OF USA GREAT RIVERS: MISSOURI, MISSISSIPPI, OHIO. Presented at 52nd Annual Meeting of the North American Benthological Society, Vancouver, BC, Canada, June 6-10, 2004.
Description:
Great River Ecosystems (GRE) include the river channel and associated backwaters and floodplain habitats. The challenge in designing a GRE monitoring and assessment program is to choose a set of habitats, indicators, and sampling locations that reveal the ecological condition of the GRE at an appropriate scale, without bias, and at an affordable price. A comprehensive and reliable assessment requires sampling a variety of biotic assemblages, including organisms of contrasting size and mobility, in a variety of GRE habitats. These assemblages may be rich in taxa or they may be important for ecosystem structure and function. Measurements of the toxicity of waters and sediment and contaminant levels in fish tissues are needed to assess the extent of toxic contamination within the river system. The influence of physical structure across spatial scales ranging from substrate particles to channel and floodplain morphology is needed to interpret biological responses to anthropogenic stressors. Large-scale habitat structure influences the processes of groundwater flow, inundation, and water velocity; and the mobilization, transport, and deposition of sediments, organic matter, and dissolved substances. These, in turn, determine micro- and meso-scale habitat structure, which act as a template for aquatic biota that vary in their habitat requirements.