Tuesday, June 5, 2007
425

Impact of treated sewage on meiofauna in headwater streams

Arthur V. Brown, Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, SCEN 705, Fayetteville, AR 72701, Winston E. Duncan, The Education Department, The Valley, Anguilla, and Julia K. Eichman, EcoAnalysts, Moscow, ID 83843.

  This study was a preliminary investigation of the efficacy of meiofauna for bioassessment of stream water quality upstream and downstream from sewage treatment plants (STPs).  Benthic and planktonic samples were collected upstream and 10, 400 and 800 meters downstream from STPs on three headwater Ozark streams.  When analyzed collectively for the three streams, there were no significant differences.  However, planktonic or benthic samples of individual taxa (Monogononta rotifers, copepods, cladocerans, nematodes, dipterans, mites, etc.), from the individual streams exhibited four distinct patterns: decrease with recovery, decrease without recovery, increase with return to upstream density, and no effect.  For example, Monogononta, which comprised 45 -85% of total planktonic densities, showed a pattern of decrease followed by recovery in two streams, but in the other stream there was a pattern of increase with return to upstream density downstream.  Benthic cyclopoid copepods had exactly the opposite pattern in the same streams.  When all taxa were considered together and all streams combined, the contrasting patterns of individual taxa in different streams cancelled each other out and failed to produce statistically significant responses for benthic or planktonic forms.

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