H2O'C Engineering

Missouri Streams Projects

Stream Biomonitoring
to Assess Impact of Large-scale Livestock Production Wastes

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Macroinvertebrates in four Northern Missouri Streams

As part of requirements for a consent decree, numerous north-central Missouri stream sites were sampled as part of a five-year evaluation of the impact of accidental discharges of lagoon wastes from a large-scale livestock production facility.

Water quality parameters were measured as outlined in MDNR Stream Habitat Assessment Procedure. Collections were processed for macroinvertebrates according to the Semi-Quantitative Lotic Macroinvertebrate Sampling Procedure.

A total of 5,484 specimens, representing 99 taxa or species were identified. Chironomids, a family of ubiquitous fly larvae, dominated the invertebrate community, comprising 51% of the total specimens identified. Other dominant taxa were Caenis latipennis and Stenacron interpunctatum (two pollution-tolerant mayflies), Cheumatopsyche sp. (a pollution-tolerant caddisfly), and the class Oligochaeta, another pollution-tolerant group. The relative percentages of the dominant taxa are shown below.

distribution of taxa in water sampling

organisms found in samples

 

Missouri stream

References

Missouri Department of Natural Resources
P.O. Box 176
Jefferson City, MO 65102

sampling

Relevance

  • Stream habitat assessment for Macroinvertebrates