Poster Details
ANALYSIS OF INCREASING TAXA TRENDS OF LONG-TERM DATA COLLECTED IN MINING IMPACTED STREAMS
Very few studies have been conducted using consistent long-term data of benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Long-term annual monitoring of sites in Colorado and Idaho by GEI Consultants, Inc. have yielded similar increasing trends in the number of taxa collected both upstream and downstream of mining activities. A preliminary evaluation of the data from four streams, three in Idaho and one in Colorado, suggested that there was no single contributing factor for these trends and further in-depth analysis was required. In order to focus on determining the potential factors contributing to the increasing trends observed, we analyzed taxonomic name changes over the years, as well as a variety of macroinvertebrate metrics to determine if any other trends were observable.
Jennifer Shanteau (Primary Presenter/Author), GEI Consultants, Inc., jshanteau@geiconsultants.com;
Jeniffer Lynch ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), GEI Consultants, Inc., jlynch@geiconsultants.com;