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Wednesday, June 6, 2007 - 10:45 AM
206
The effects of restoration structures on nutrient uptake and macroinvertebrate communities in urban streams in Greensboro, North Carolina
Stacy L. Hines and Anne E. Hershey. Biology, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, 312 Eberhart Building, Greensboro, NC 27402
Through mitigation efforts, many urban streams are restored using various in-stream structures, but there is little literature pertaining to how effective they are at mitigating urban impacts on nutrients and biotic communities. During the spring and summer of 2006, we studied three unrestored streams and three in-stream structures in restored streams including, cross vanes, step pools and riffles to compare different aspects of water quality. First order tributaries of North and South Buffalo Creeks in Greensboro, NC, were used in this study. A tracer addition of 15NH4-Cl was released to determine nutrient uptake differences between restored and unrestored streams; samples were collected over 180 meters at all sites. Macroinvertebrates were collected at all sites to assign a water quality score using the NCBI. Periphyton was collected from a known area to determine AFDM. Preliminary analysis indicates a strong trend toward faster N-uptake rate at restored compared to unrestored streams (p-value< 0.10). Preliminary data suggest riffle structures have the best NCBI score followed by cross vanes, step pools and unrestored sites. Also, restored streams allow for more periphyton accumulation than unrestored steams. The findings of this research should be useful for planning and design of future stream restoration projects.