Poster Details
AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE ASSEMBLAGES, BIODIVERSITY METRICS, AND TOLERANCE VALUES: MONITORING AGRICULTURALLY IMPACTED PONDS, A TEN YEAR STUDY
A ten-year study was conducted at the Milan Army Ammunition Plant in West Tennessee using aquatic macroinvertebrates to measure differences in community structure between agriculturally impacted (accessible by cattle) and control ponds (not accessible by cattle). Four funnel traps were deployed annually in the littoral area of ten ponds (five impacted, five control) for two consecutive 48-hour periods from 2006-2015. Community assemblages were compared between pond types using several biodiversity metrics (taxa richness, Shannon diversity index, and Pielou index). We extrapolated the North Carolina Biotic Index (NCBI) of tolerance values developed for predominantly lotic taxa to the collected pond taxa. The impacted cattle ponds had a significantly higher (p=0.0023) Shannon diversity index than the control ponds. Comparing this to the NCBI, we find that cattle ponds also have higher biotic indices. The NCBI score between cattle and control ponds is approaching significance (p=0.0807). This suggests that impacted ponds have a diverse community of more tolerant taxa. Development of a biotic index using tolerance values specific for lentic macroinvertebrates may strengthen the evidence of water quality differences between the pond types.
Lauren K. Schnorr (Primary Presenter/Author), Austin Peay State University, lschnorr@my.apsu.edu;
Steven W. Hamilton ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Austin Peay State University, hamiltonsw@apsu.edu;