Life Sciences Commons^™

Temporal Variability Of Bioassessment Indices Used To Evaluate Three Midwestern Streams, Nia M. Haller

Master's Theses

Population, community and functional measures or metrics in rapid bioassessment programs aid in establishing biological criteria for streams and rivers. Each metric measures different aspects of community structure and is important in detecting changes in macroinvertebrate community structure that are influenced by changes in water quality. In this study, temporal variation of nine commonly used bioassessment indices was examined in three midwestern streams. The indices were calculated for each of nine replicate benthic macroinvertebrate samples collected monthly for one year from Cowpie Creek (CC), Nippersink Creek (NC) and Lawrence Creek (LC), McHenry County, Illinois. In practice, the habitat sampled for …