Tuesday, May 27, 2008
357

The effects of urbanization on stream invertebrate communities in louisville, KY

Robert C. Johnson, Hwa-Seong Jin, and Richard Schultz. Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292

                Urbanization and the urbanization process have been extensively shown to degrade stream ecosystems.  In this study we use macroinvertebrate data collected in 2000, 2004, and 2005 from 28 sites in the Louisville Metro Area (Louisville, KY) and adjacent lands to assess the impacts of urban intensity on stream macroinvertebrate community structure.  Watersheds ranged in urban intensity from <1% total impervious surface area (TIA) to approximately 38% TIA.  Taxa richness ranged from 16 to 42.  EPT taxa richness ranged from 0-15 and %EPT ranged from 0-88%, and these taxa were consistently absent from streams with high levels of urbanization (>10% TIA).  EPT taxa were replaced by more pollution tolerant dipterans and non-insect taxa in highly urbanized streams.  Calculated invertebrate community metrics showed an approximately linear response to watershed urbanization.  Water samples retrieved during invertebrate collection also show increased concentrations of nutrients, total suspended solids, and other pollutants.  Our results are consistent with other studies of stream biotic integrity in showing decreased taxa richness and diversity with increasing levels of urbanization.


Web Page: urban, macroinvertebrate, bioassessment

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