Artificial substrata as quantitative sampling devices of benthic macroinvertebrates in flowing water habitats

80 Pages·1994·5.7 MB·English

by  Casey, Richard J

eg.
AECV94-R3
ARTIFICIAL SUBSTRATA AS QUANTITATIVE
SAMPLING DEVICES OF BENTHIC
MACROINVERTEBRATES IN
FLOWING WATER HABITATS
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015
https://archive.org/details/artificialsubstrOOcase
ARTIFICIAL SUBSTRATA AS QUANTITATIVE SAMPLING DEVICES OF
BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES IN FLOWING WATER HABITATS
25 1994
by
Richard J. Casey
Environmental Enhancement
Biological Sciences
Alberta Environmental Centre
March 22, 1994
This publication may be cited as:
Casey, Richard J. 1993. Artificial Substrata as Quantitative Sampling Devices of Benthic
Macroinvertebrates in Flowing Water Habitats. Alberta Environmental Centre, Vegreville, AB.
AECV94-R3. 31 pp + 2 Appendices.
ISBN 0-7732-1390-2.
ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
LIST OF TABLES v
LIST OF FIGURES vi
LIST OF APPENDICES vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS viii
ABSTRACT ix
1 INTRODUCTION 1
2 DESCRIPTION OF STUDY SITES 3
3 METHODS AND STUDY DESIGN 3
3.1 Methods '. 3
3.2 Experimental Design 5
3.2.1 Summary of Experiments 5
3.2.2 McLeod River 5
3.2.3 Battle River 7
3.2.3.1 Position of Artificial Substrata Relative to Natural Substratum 7
3.2.3.2 Artificial Substrata Versus Natural Substratum 9
3.3 Statistical Analyses 9
3.3.1 McLeod River 9
3.3.2 Battle River 10
3.3.3 Taxonomic Composition on the Artificial and Natural Substrata 10
4 RESULTS 10
4.1 McLeod River 10
4.1.1 Presence of Benthic Cover on Artifical Substrata 10
iii
4.1.2 Comparison Among Artificial Substrata 11
4.1.3 Comparison Among Colonization Periods 13
4.2 Battle River 15
4.2.1 Physically Disturbed Versus Undisturbed Natural Substratum 15
4.2.2 Position of Artificial Substrata Relative to Natural Substratum 16
4.3 Comparison Among Artificial Substrata And Natural Substratum 18
4.3.1 McLeod River 18
4.3.2 Battle River 22
4.4 Summary of Results 24
5 DISCUSSION 24
6 REFERENCES 29
iv
LIST OF TABLES
PAGE
Table 1 . Physical characteristics of the artificial substrata used in the McLeod and
Battle rivers 4
Table 2. Percent composition and results of the three-way (benthic cover,
substratum type, and colonization period) analysis of variance (* = p <
0.05) and Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) tests for the densities (n=5) of
the ten most abundant taxa and the total number of organisms on the
substratum baskets (B) and single rock particles (R) in Areas A and B of
the McLeod River 11
Table 3. Percent composition and results of the two-way (substratum type and
colonization period) analysis of variance (* = p < 0.05) and Student-
Newman-Keuls (SNK) tests for the densities (n=5) of the seven most
abundant taxa and the total number of organisms on the substratum
baskets (B), and single rock (R) and brick (K) particles in Areas A and
B of the McLeod River 12
Table 4. Number of taxa in each sample type and all of the sample types together
for the McLeod River and Riffle 1 in the Battle River 13
Table 5. Percent composition and results of the unpaired t-test (* = p < 0.05) for
the densities (n=5) of the ten most abundant taxa and the total number
of organisms in the Neill cylinder samples on the natural substratum that
was physically disturbed (D) and not disturbed (ND) in the transects of
the Battle River 15
Table 6. Percent composition and results of the two-way (substratum type and
substratum position) analysis of variance (* = p < 0.05) for the densities
(n=5) of the ten most abundant taxa and the total number of organisms
on the single brick (K) and rock (R) particles that were embedded (E) or
not embedded (NE) flush with the surface of the natural substratum in
Riffle 2 of the Battle River 18
Table 7. Percent composition and results of the two-way (substratum type and
colonization period) analysis of variance (* = p < 0.05) and Student-
Newman-Keuls (SNK) tests for the densities (n=5) of the seven most
abundant taxa and the total number of organisms on the substratum
baskets (B), single rock (R) and brick (K) particles, and the Neill
cylinder samples (N) in Areas A and B of the McLeod River 19
Table 8. Results of the Spearman rank correlation two-tailed test for the similarity
of the 10 most abundant taxa between pairs of each artificial substratum
(brick: B, rock: R, and substratum basket: B) and the Neill cylinder
sampler (N), and pairs of the artificial substrata at McLeod and Battle
rivers 21
Table 9. Percent composition and results of the one-way analysis of variance (*
= p < 0.05) and Student-Newman-Keuls (SNK) tests for the densities
(n=15) of the ten most abundant taxa and the total number of organisms
in the Neill cylinder (N), and single rock (R) and brick (K) particles in
Riffle 1 of the Battle River 23
v
LIST OF FIGURES
PAGE
Figure 1. Position and colonization period (1-, 8-, 29-day) of the single brick (K)
and rock (R) particles, substratum baskets (B), and Neill cylinder (N)
samples in Areas A and B of the McLeod River 6
Figure 2. Position of the single brick (K) and rock (R) particles, and Neill cylinder
(N) samples in Riffles 1 and 2 of the Battle River 8
Figure 3. Mean density (n=5) of the total number of organisms on the single brick
and rock particles, and the substratum baskets after each colonization
period in Areas A and B of the McLeod River 14
Figure 4. Density of the total number of organisms in the samples of the natural
substratum that was physically disturbed (D) or not disturbed (ND) in the
Battle River 16
Figure 5. Density of Hyalella azteca, Leptophlebia, Optioservus, and Hydropsvche
in the natural substratum that was physically disturbed (D) or not
disturbed (ND) samples at the Battle River 17
Figure 6. Mean density (n=5) of the total number of organisms on the single brick
and rock particles, substratum baskets, and the Neill cylinder (N) samples
after each colonization period in Areas A and B of the McLeod River. . . 20
vi
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1. Standard Operating Procedures that were developed and used in the field and
laboratory for this study: (1) Quantitative sampling of benthic macroinvertebrates
in lotic habitats, and (2) Laboratory processing of benthic macroinvertebrate
samples.
Appendix 2. Macroinvertebrate taxa present (*) in the artificial substratum and Neill cylinder
samples at the McLeod and Battle rivers.
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Sharon Kendall for her technical support including work in the field,
laboratory and using the computer. I thank P. Yeung for his advice on estimating the surface
area of the natural substratum, S. Melenka for measuring the dry weight of organic material in
the samples, B. Dew and K. Smiley for other technical assistance on this study, and C. Petryshyn
and P. Soldan for preparing the final report.
I thank L. Dosdall, Z. Florence, R. Johnson, and K. Schwalme for providing helpful
comments on a version of the report, and J. Moore and K. Smiley for reviewing the Standard
Operating Procedures.
viii