Macroinvertebrate Community Structure in Relation to Agricultural Land Use in Southern Illinois Headwater Streams

Principia CollegeN.J. Boyer-Rechlin

G.L. BrulandM.A. Rechlin

Introduction:Illinois Land Use (LU)

Illinois LU change 1820-2007• Prairie: 59% <1%• Forest: 38% 17%

Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico• 15% N; 10%P comes from Illinois

Jersey County, IL • Highly forested & highly cultivated regions

Representative of IL LU distributions• 3 IL natural divisions

http://crystal.isgs.uiuc.edu/nsdihome/webdocs/landcover/nass07.html

Introduction:Macroinvertebrates

Trophic relationships• Transform/transport organic matter• Terrestrial/aquatic linkages

Bioassessment• Reflect stream quality trends• Hilsenhoff’s Biotic Index• State stream watch programs

Macroinvertebrates & Agriculture• Subsidy/stress threshold: 35-40% watershed

agriculture

http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/getinvolved/sos/Pages/Benthics.aspx

Purpose

Characterize benthic macroinvertebrate community structure in Jersey County headwater streams

Investigate the effects of upstream agriculture on macroinvertebrate communities

Assess the effectiveness of macroinvertebrate community metrics in qualifying regional stream quality

Methods Riffles sampled in 15 perennial

streams• Fall 2013• Watersheds < 10km2

• 4.6%-80.2% watershed agriculture

Water quality w/YSI probe

Discharge, wetted/channel width, velocity, habitat quality assessment (US EPA)

Family level ID

Functional feeding groups (FFGs)

Site Photos

ResultsLand Use Distributions

NLCD 2006 3 spatial scales: 50m, 150m, watershed

Results:Family Composition

Hydropsychidae Gammaridae Asellidae

Baetidae Chironomidae Perlodidae

Results:FFG Composition

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 150%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

%Scrapers

%Predators

%CG

%CF

% Shredder

Results:Principal Components Analysis

Results:Family Relationships

  %Agriculture (wshed)

%Agriculture (150m)

%Agriculture (50m)

%Forest (wshed)

%Forest (150m)

%Forest (50m)

Gammaridae -.581 (.023)**

-.477 (.072)*

-0.446 (0.095)*

.586 (.022)**

.501 (.057)*

0.344 (0.210)

Asellidae -.005 (.985)

-.172 (.541`)

-0.293 (0.289)

.026 (.928)

.199 (.476)

-0.006 (0.984)

Hydropsychidae .579 (.019)**

.603 (.017)**

0.653 (0.008)**

-.617 (.014)**

-.637 (.011) **

-0.419 (0.120)

Baetidae .048 (.864)

-.071 (.802)

-0.118 (0.675)

-.036 (.899)

.048 (.865)

0.181 (0.519)

Chironomidae .203 (.469)

.140 (.618)

0.106 (0.707)

-.208 (.456)

-.148 (.599)

-0.042 (0.881)

0.00% 10.00% 20.00% 30.00% 40.00% 50.00% 60.00% 70.00%0.00%

10.00%20.00%30.00%40.00%50.00%60.00%70.00%80.00%90.00%

f(x) = 0.88121054254742 x + 0.187922614491286R² = 0.426325020584984

% Agriculture 50m

Perc

ent

Hyd

rops

y-ch

idae

*= p<0.1; **= p<0.05

Results:Stream Quality Indices

Site Family Biotic Index (FBI) H’  Richness  Evenness1 4.4 1.53 9  0.672 4.1 0.07 2  0.103 4.9 1.10 6  0.564 4.6 1.37 8  0.595 5.4 1.28 6  0.726 4.9 1.32 7  0.687 5.6 1.37 6  0.708 4.7 1.57 9  0.719 4.1 1.09 8  0.5010 6.0 0.73 3  0.6611 4.4 1.46 12  0.5912 4.7 1.02 6  0.5713 4.0 0.83 9  0.3814 5.6 1.48 12  0.5915 4.1 0.42 5  0.26

Discussion:Community Characterization

Communities differ from those in highly degraded IL streams (Gorman, 1987; Stone et al., 2005)• Collector-Filterer vs. Collector-Gatherer dominance

Lack of EPT taxa low stream quality across the region• Perlodidae indicator taxa for reference quality streams

Multiple community structures?• Sites 2, 10, 15 > 95% shredders• Hard-water spring communities (Wetzel and Webb, 2007)

Discussion:Stream Quality Metrics

Dominance of Hydropsychidae indicates Ag impact• Hyper-dominance in response to organic/nutrient pollution

H’, Richness, Evenness• Low H’ for all sites suggests region wide degradation

FBI• Most streams “good” or “very good” rating.• Low diversity/evenness decrease effectiveness of FBI

Highly impacted streams may not have been sampled All sites have intact riparian buffers & <60% cropland

Conclusions Upstream agriculture significantly impacts macroinvertebrate

community structure in JC (Middle Mississippi Border Division) streams

Hilsenhoff’s FBI and other family metrics may not be effective means for monitoring/comparing stream quality in impacted, low diversity regions

Streams across the MMBD in JC (<80%agriculture) all have similar functional quality;• Both pristine and highly degrades streams are rare

Perlodidae at site 14 suggests that higher quality stream communities may still exist in the regions least degraded watersheds

At least 2 reference quality macroinvertebrate communities may exist in JC streams

Acknowledgements Principia College Advisory support

• Ally Ringhausen• Mike Rhaesa• John Lovseth• Dr. Chrissy McAllister

Field Assistants• Leah Pyne• Karlin Krishniswami• Chelsea Chichester