Poster Details
A COMPARISON OF THREE COMMON BENTHIC SAMPLING METHODS AND THEIR EFFICACY FOR COMMUNITY ANALYSES IN AN IMPOUNDED RIVER SYSTEM
In the summers of 2007-2010, the Spokane Tribe of Indians collected benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) from the Upper Columbia River using three techniques: benthic sled, drift, and artificial substrates. An analysis of the samples collected by these methods revealed significant discrepancies in the types of organisms caught. Benthic sled and drift methods collected mainly planktonic taxa, primarily small crustaceans.This varies significantly from the community structure of the artificial substrate samples (p<0.001), which contained primarily Cnidarian polyps (Hydra sp.), and Chironomids. Collectively, these two taxa made up an average of 93.6% of the individuals in artificial substrates in 2007, and 63.7% in 2010. Though artificial substrate samples were less diverse than samples collected by other methods (p<0.001), the samples contained more benthic oriented taxa. These data suggest that, of the methods presented, artificial substrates are most applicable to the study area, as they provided a more accurate representation of BMI assemblages with little or no overlap with the zooplankton community.
Sarah Hindle (Primary Presenter/Author), Eastern Washington University, shindle@eagles.ewu.edu;
Ryan Reihart (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Dayton, Reihartr1@gmail.com;
Camille McNeely (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Eastern Washington University , camillemcn@gmail.com;
Andrew Miller (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nebraska at Omaha, andrewmiller@unomaha.edu;