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SFS Annual Meeting

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THE IMPACT OF A JULY 2017 FLOOD EVENT ON BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES IN TRIBUTARIES AT THE HUBBARD BROOK EXPERIMENTAL FOREST

In July 2017, a major storm impacted the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF), with heavy precipitation resulting in high runoff, streamflow, and erosion. Preliminary peak stage height data from HBEF suggest that the observed flows during this event may fall within the top ten highest values on record at some locations. Sections of six tributaries that had just been sampled for benthic macroinvertebrates in the week before this storm event were resampled between 3-4 days afterward. Overall macroinvertebrate densities collected in these samples decreased by half from the pre- to post-storm period. Changes in community composition between the pre- and post-storm samples are discussed, as well as patterns in the abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrates in the same sample areas by early August 2017.

Kerry Yurewicz (Primary Presenter/Author), Plymouth State University, klyurewicz@plymouth.edu;