Poster Details
A COMPARISON OF FUNCTIONAL FEEDING GROUP METRICS IN AN URBANIZED WATERSHED USING BOTH NUMERIC AND BIOMASS DATA
The Mill Creek Watershed, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, has been historically implicated as a degraded urban watershed due to cumulative effects of industrial effluents, combined sewage overflows, and channelization. While local and state efforts to monitor and improve water quality have been ongoing, more baseline data is needed throughout the watershed to better understand the impact of current and future management efforts. The objective of this study was to compare macroinvertebrate functional feeding group metrics utilizing both numeric and biomass data. Combined, both numerical and biomass data may provide a more thorough assessment of structure and function within streams of the Mill Creek Watershed. Standardized macroinvertebrate samples were collected from multiple habitats (3 riffle and 1 composite multi-habitat) in three stream sites within the watershed from 2014-2018. Macroinvertebrates were identified to family level, functional feeding groups were assigned, and biomass was determined using a new expedited field/lab method. Preliminary analyses indicated little variation between both data sets (numeric and biomass) overtime; however, variation was observed among sites within the watershed.
Rachel Neff (Primary Presenter/Author,Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Xavier University, neffr1@xavier.edu;
Sophie Racey (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Georgia, sir74000@uga.edu;
Mollie McIntosh (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Xavier University, mcintoshm2@xavier.edu;