Macroinvertebrate Inventories of the White River, Colorado and Utah: Significance of Annual, Seasonal, and Spatial Variation in the Design of Biomonitoring Networks for Pollution Detection

摘要

An aquatic macroinvertebrate monitoring program is suggested for 'early warning' detection of toxic discharges to streams in oil shale development areas. Changes in stream biota are used to signal need for increasing levels of chemical analyses to identify and quantify toxic pollutants. This study compiles invertebrate data taken during three seasons (spring, summer and fall) and over five years (1976 to 1980) from riffles along the White River in Colorado and Utah. Spatial and temporal variations in the biota are described along with their implications for the development of a monitoring system that incorporates such comparative surveys. In addition, the data provide benthic biological information that is generally comparable to previous studies on the White River and which can be used to expand the biological monitoring data base prior to commercial scale oil shale development.