Tuesday, June 5, 2007
563

Response of macroinvertebrate communities to restoration of a degraded Delmarva Bay

Lauren E. Culler1, William O. Lamp1, Michelle R. Haube1, and Doug Samson2. (1) Department of Entomology, University of Maryland, 4112 Plant Sciences Building, College Park, MD 20742-4454, (2) The Nature Conservancy, 5410 Grosvenor Lane, Suite 100, Bethesda, MD 20814

Delmarva bays are seasonally flooded depressional wetlands that were once numerous on the Delmarva Peninsula (MD/DE). Most have been drained over the years for agricultural use, though recent efforts have focused on restoring these ecosystems to their original structure and function. Since 2003, we have monitored physical, chemical, and biological changes during the recovery of a restored Delmarva bay, known as Pasture Pond (PPD), and similarly studied a nearby unimpacted Delmarva bay, Jackson Lane Large (JLL), as a reference. Monitoring focused on macroinvertebrate communities since knowledge of the taxa present may be useful as an indicator of the functioning of the wetland ecosystem. After restoration, water levels and dissolved oxygen levels increased in PPD and by 2004 were similar to those measured in JLL. The number of taxa found in PPD increased through 2005, suggesting that conditions had become favorable for a wider range of macroinvertebrates, including several taxa of Odonata, Hemiptera, and Coleoptera that were previously absent. By continuing to monitor the macroinvertebrate communities, in association with other monitoring efforts at the Jackson Lane site, we intend to evaluate the success of the restoration efforts and provide guidance to improved wetland restoration and monitoring efforts in the future.

See more of Poster Session - Wetlands
See more of Contributed Sessions

See more of The NABS 55th Annual Meeting