Tuesday, June 5, 2007
564

Quantitative assessment of the efficiencies of three macroinvertebrate sampling techniques in Platte River wetlands

Scot D. Peterson, Clinton K. Meyer, and Matt R. Whiles. Department of Zoology and Center for Ecology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 62901-6501

Three macroinvertebrate sampling techniques were evaluated in a Platte River wetland in central Nebraska to determine their efficiency in vegetated and non-vegetated habitats.  We estimated abundance, biomass, taxa richness, Shannon diversity, and processing time using samples collected with benthic cores (20cm diameter), 0.5m dip net jabs, and repeated dip net sweeps in an enclosed sampling frame (0.43 x 0.5m).  Overall, total abundance and biomass were higher in vegetated habitats (p<0.05).  The dip net frame technique produced the highest abundance estimates in both vegetated and non-vegetated habitats (p=0.03).  Total biomass estimated with the dip net frame samples was 3x higher than from dip net jabs (p=0.03) and 4.5x higher than cores (p=0.01) in vegetated habitats.  Although not significant, mean richness was generally higher in dip net frame samples (veg=30.5, non-veg=14.5).  Samples from vegetated habitats collected with the dip net frame averaged 11+ hours to process, which was significantly longer than dip net jabs (3+ hours, p=0.004) and cores (2+ hours, p=0.001).  More efficient capture of mobile invertebrates in a larger sampling area resulted in higher abundance, biomass, and richness estimates with the dip net frame.  However, this technique may be less cost effective due to much longer sample processing times.

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