ARS | Publication request: Rehabilitation of a Severely Damaged Stream Channel with Large Woody Debris Structures: Macroinvertebrate Community Response

Submitted to: North American Benthological Society Bulletin
Publication Type: Abstract
Publication Acceptance Date: February 12, 2004
Publication Date: May 28, 2004
Citation: Cooper, C.M., Testa III, S., Shields Jr., F.D. 2004. Rehabilitation of a severely damaged stream channel with large woody debris structures: Macroinvertebrate community response. North American Benthological Society Bulletin. 21(1):360.

Technical Abstract: Although woody debris addition has been widely employed for salmonid habitat rehabilitation, reports describing treatment of incised, sand-bed streams have been rare. Studies were conducted at a fourth-order stream in north-central Mississippi where aquatic habitat conditions were marked by extremely shallow flow and sand-dominated substrates. Seventy-two large woody debris structures (LWDS) were placed within the study channel. Macroinvertebrates in five stream reaches were collected from large woody debris, leaf packs / coarse particulate organic matter, streambed sand substrate, and supplemented with a qualitative multi-habitat sample during three seasons before and three seasons following stream treatment with LWDS. Overall, numbers of individuals were very similar following rehabilitation efforts. A total of 149 macroinvertebrate taxa were identified, with 91 taxa observed before treatment and 118 taxa observed following treatment, and the number of shared taxa was only 60. Jaccard and Sorenson incidence-based similarity indices both indicated a large change from before to after treatment. The Shannon index and Fisher's log series alpha index indicated low overall diversity before treatment and much higher diversity after treatment. Overall sample evenness also increased substantially in collections after treatment. Despite many LWDS failures, several positive macroinvertebrate community responses to rehabilitation efforts were observed.