Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Oxford, Mississippi » National Sedimentation Laboratory » Water Quality and Ecology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #94259
Title: STREAM RESTORATION: RESPONSE OF BENTHOS TO ENGINEERED STABLE RIFFLE/POOL HABITAT

Author
item Cooper, Charles
item Testa Iii, Sam
item Shields Jr, Fletcher

Submitted to: International Society Of Limnology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/3/1999
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Loss of aquatic and terrestrial habitat for fish and wildlife is a global problem. Production agriculture is often criticized for stream degradation problems. In much of the Mississippi River drainage of the United States, streams are actively down-cutting through the landscape, and stream habitat has been severely impacted. When state or federal agencies attempt to stabilize these actively eroding stream channels, they are provided with the challenge of restoring habitat as well. Many times physical habitat vital to fish and other aquatic life can be restored at little extra cost. This study involved measuring responses in indicator organisms in a stream restoration effort. This paper discussed how small animals provide good indication of habitat improvement and how they changed when habitat was improved in a field-scale study. This information is of interest to biologists who must use bio-indicator tools to measure stream conditions and the results of positive and negative changes in our environment

Technical Abstract: In support of development of stream restoration techniques, we conducted a restoration project in an incised destabilized stream and compared results to a non-incised reference and a comparison incised stream. Restoration included both bioengineering (willow post plantings) and conventional (stone weirs) materials. Invertebrate community dynamics were monitored to assess response. Invertebrates at the restored stream related favorably with the reference stream for some comparisons (taxa richness, proportion Chironomidae, dominant taxon contribution). Invertebrate numbers did not increase with restoration because shifts in the fish community associated with increased pool stability from weir construction resulted in increased predation on invertebrates.