New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research abstracts

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Relationships between land use and stream invertebrate community structure in a South Island, New Zealand, coastal stream catchment

MATTHEW J. HALL
GERARD P. CLOSS⁺
RALPH H. RILEY*

Department of Zoology
University of Otago
P. O. Box 56
Dunedin, New Zealand
email: gerry.closs@stonebow.otago.ac.nz

*Present address: Huxley College of Environmental Studies, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9079, United States.

Abstract  Macroinvertebrate community composition was compared across streams draining catchments dominated by either native bush, agricultural or urban land uses within the Water of Leith stream catchment near Dunedin, New Zealand. Land use was associated with differences in taxon richness and faunal composition of communities present in each stream. The mean abundance levels of Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera were highest in native bush catchments, and lowest in urban catchments. In contrast, the mean abundance of Oligochaeta exhibited the opposite pattern. Increasing dominance of the urban and agricultural streams by pollution tolerant taxa was reflected in the Macroinvertebrate Community Index and Quantitative Macroinvertebrate Community Index scores.

Keywords  lotic; land use; biotic indices; benthic invertebrates; aquatic insects; biological monitoring

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 2001, Vol. 35: 591-603

0028-8330/01/3503-0591 $7.00 (c) The Royal Society of New Zealand 2001

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (955K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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