Physicochemical Characteristics and Benthic MacroinvertebrateCommunities in Temporary Surface Waters of Northern Stark County,Ohio

摘要

Natural habitats located in urbanized regions are increasingly being impacted by residential, commercial andagricultural development, but little is known about their biotic and abiotic characteristics. Temporary aquatic habitats areless protected by environmental regulations than permanently flooded habitats, and they have been historicallyunderstudied. We sampled temporary aquatic habitats including vernal pools, other emergent wetlands and intermittentstreams in northeastern Ohio over a two-year period to characterize the macroinvertebrate communities and abioticcharacteristics of each habitat type. Duration of inundation of the habitat was the single largest contributing factor tobenthic macroinvertebrate community structure. Macroinvertebrate community variability was greater among habitattypes than within types suggesting that different habitats type do play a role in selecting for different invertebrate species.Macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity, and functional feeding group patterns differed among seasons. Dissolvedoxygen, oxidation-reduction potential and conductivity explained a significant portion of the variability inmacroinvertebrate community structure, and these differed among habitat types. Our results suggest that abioticcharacteristics have a greater role in determining macroinvertebrate community structure than habitat type.