Long-term Aquatic Invertebrate Monitoring at Buffalo National River, Arkansas

Aquatic invertebrate community structure was used to assess long-term water quality integrity in the mainstem of the Buffalo National River, Arkansas from 2005 to 2013. Nine benthic invertebrate samples were collected from each of six sampling sites using a Slack-Surber sampler. The Stream Condition Index (SCI) developed for Ozark streams was used to assess integrity of the invertebrate communities. This index is calculated using taxa richness, EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera) Richness, Shannon’s Diversity Index, and Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI). Sørensen’s similarity index was used to assess community similarity among sites, and scores were then analyzed using ascendant hierarchical cluster analysis. The benthic invertebrate fauna was diverse with 167 distinct taxa identified from all sites, with similarities ranging from 70% to 83%. Cluster analysis showed that sites were clustered in a longitudinal progression, with those sites closest to one another in linear distance generally being the most closely related. Overall, the invertebrate taxa of the Buffalo River are largely intolerant (mean tolerance value= 4.38). Taxa richness was typically greater than 20 among samples, and EPT richness values consistently were greater than 12 for all sites in most years. Shannon’s diversity index values generally ranged from 2.0 to 2.5 among sites and years. Metric values tended to decrease in a downstream direction to Site 4, and then increase to levels observed upstream. The exception was for HBI, which did not show this response and values for this metric generally were below 5. SCI scores among sampling sites were variable but not generally impaired and were fully biologically-supporting. Water quality (temperature, dissolved oxygen, specific conductance, pH, turbidity) met state standards in all instances. Habitat data were summarized, but found to be poorly correlated with invertebrate metrics (\u3c30% significant). Although the condition of invertebrate communities and water quality in the Buffalo River are largely sound and have high integrity, numerous ongoing and projected threats to these resources remain, and those threats largely originate outside of the park’s jurisdictional boundaries. Inherent variability of invertebrate community diversity and density across sites and years highlights the importance of using multi-metric assessment and multiyear monitoring to support management decisions

Protocol for Monitoring Fish Communities in Small Streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network, Version 2.0

Executive Summary Fish communities are an important component of aquatic systems and are good bioindicators of ecosystem health. Land use changes in the Midwest have caused sedimentation, erosion, and nutrient loading that degrades and fragments habitat and impairs water quality. Because most small wadeable streams in the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) have a relatively small area of their watersheds located within park boundaries, these streams are at risk of degradation due to adjacent land use practices and other anthropogenic disturbances. Shifts in the physical and chemical properties of aquatic systems have a dramatic effect on the biotic community. The federally endangered Topeka shiner (Notropis topeka) and other native fishes have declined in population size due to habitat degradation and fragmentation in Midwest streams. By protecting portions of streams on publicly owned lands, national parks may offer refuges for threatened or endangered species and species of conservation concern, as well as other native species. This protocol describes the background, history, justification, methodology, data analysis and data management for long-term fish community monitoring of wadeable streams within nine HTLN parks: Effigy Mounds National Monument (EFMO), George Washington Carver National Monument (GWCA), Herbert Hoover National Historic Site (HEHO), Homestead National Monument of America (HOME), Hot Springs National Park (HOSP), Pea Ridge National Military Park (PERI), Pipestone National Monument (PIPE), Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (TAPR), and Wilson\u27s Creek National Battlefield (WICR). The objectives of this protocol are to determine the status and long-term trends in fish richness, diversity, abundance, and community composition in small wadeable streams within these nine parks and correlate the long-term community data to overall water quality and habitat condition (DeBacker et al. 2005)

Protocol for Monitoring Aquatic Invertebrates of Small Streams in the Heartland Inventory & Monitoring Network, Version 2.1

Executive Summary The Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) is a component of the National Park Service’s (NPS) strategy to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific information. The purposes of this program are to design and implement long-term ecological monitoring and provide information for park managers to evaluate the integrity of park ecosystems and better understand ecosystem processes. Concerns over declining surface water quality have led to the development of various monitoring approaches to assess stream water quality. Freshwater streams in network parks are threatened by numerous stressors, most of which originate outside park boundaries. Stream condition and ecosystem health are dependent on processes occurring in the entire watershed as well as riparian and floodplain areas; therefore, they cannot be manipulated independently of this interrelationship. Land use activities—such as timber management, landfills, grazing, confined animal feeding operations, urbanization, stream channelization, removal of riparian vegetation and gravel, and mineral and metals mining—threaten stream quality. Accordingly, the framework for this aquatic monitoring is directed towards maintaining the ecological integrity of the streams in those parks. Invertebrates are an important tool for understanding and detecting changes in ecosystem integrity, and they can be used to reflect cumulative impacts that cannot otherwise be detected through traditional water quality monitoring. The broad diversity of invertebrate species occurring in aquatic systems similarly demonstrates a broad range of responses to different environmental stressors. Benthic invertebrates are sensitive to the wide variety of impacts that influence Ozark streams. Benthic invertebrate community structure can be quantified to reflect stream integrity in several ways, including the absence of pollution sensitive taxa, dominance by a particular taxon combined with low overall taxa richness, or appreciable shifts in community composition relative to reference condition. Furthermore, changes in the diversity and community structure of benthic invertebrates are relatively simple to communicate to resource managers and the public. To assess the natural and anthropogenic processes influencing invertebrate communities, this protocol has been designed to incorporate the spatial relationship of benthic invertebrates with their local habitat including substrate size and embeddedness, and water quality parameters (temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and turbidity). Rigid quality control and quality assurance are used to ensure maximum data integrity. Detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supporting information are associated with this protocol