Abstract
The accumulation of sand and fine gravel (<5 mm diameter) on riverbeds can adversely affect benthic macroinvertebrates, which are good indicators of the ecological health of rivers. The possibility arises, therefore, that predictions of sedimentation could form a useful proxy for indicating the health of a river. The Sediment River Network Model (SedNet) constructs sediment budgets to predict the depth of bed material accumulation (BMA) in each link of a river network. This study tests whether the predicted BMA depth was associated with spatial differences in macroinvertebrate community structure, in the Upper Murrumbidgee River catchment of southeast Australia. There was a significant, albeit limited, correlation. Riffle sites with low BMA depth (0–0.01 m) had a significantly different macroinvertebrate community structure compared to sites with medium (0.01–0.3 m) or high (>0.3 m) BMA depth. At these sites, taxa sensitive to habitat were in greater abundance when BMA depth was low. Additionally, riffle sites with high predicted BMA depth had lower values for three macroinvertebrate community structure measures—AUSRIVAS observed-to-expected (OE) taxa ratio, Ephemeroptera abundance and Plecoptera abundance. There was no significant difference in macroinvertebrate community structure between sites with medium and high levels of BMA depth. Possible reasons for this result are: (1) there may have been few sites in the high and medium categories to provide sufficient statistical power to detect a significant difference; (2) spatial variation in BMA depth within SedNet river links; or (3) only a minimal amount of BMA is required to change community structure. To further define spatial variation in biological damage from BMA, data are required on the spatial scale of variations in BMA depth and damage to macroinvertebrate community structure.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
ACTSER, 1997. Australian Capital Region State of the Environment Report. Office of the Commissioner for the Environment, Canberra, ACT.
Angradi, T. R., 1999. Fine sediment and macroinvertebrate assemblages in Appalachian streams: a field experiment with biomonitoring applications. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 18: 49–66.
ANZECC/ARMCANZ, 2000. Australian Water Quality Guidelines for Fresh and Marine Waters. National Water Quality Management Strategy. Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council and the Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand, Canberra.
APHA, 1992. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 17th ed. American Public Health Association, Washington.
Armstrong, K. N., A. W. Storey & P. M. Davies, 2005. Effects of catchment clearing and sedimentation on macroinvertebrate communities of cobble habitat in freshwater streams of southwestern Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 88: 1–11.
Bartley, R. & I. D. Rutherfurd, 2005a. Measuring the reach-scale geomorphic diversity of streams: application to a stream disturbed by a sediment slug. River Research and Applications 21: 39–59.
Bartley, R. & I. D. Rutherfurd, 2005b. Re-evaluation of the wave model as a tool for quantifying the geomorphic recovery potential of streams disturbed by sediment slugs. Geomorphology 64: 221–242.
Boulton, A. J. & M. A. Brock, 1999. Australian Freshwater Ecology Processes and Management. Gleneagles Publishing, Glen Osmond.
Campbell, I. C. & T. J. Doeg, 1989. Impact of timber harvesting and production on streams: a review. Marine and Freshwater Research 40: 519–539.
Chessman, B. C., 1995. Rapid assessment of rivers using macroinvertebrates – a procedure based on habitat-specific sampling, family level identification and a biotic index. Australian Journal of Ecology 20: 122–129.
Clarke, K. R. & R. N. Gorley, 2001. Primer v5: User Manual/Tutorial, Primer E: Plymouth. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth, UK.
Clarke, K. R. & R. M. Warwick, 1994. Change in Marine Communities: An Approach to Statistical Analysis and Interpretation. Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Plymouth.
Cordone, A. J. & D. W. Kelley, 1961. The influences of inorganic sediment on the aquatic life of a stream. California Fish and Game 47: 189–228.
Downes, B. J., P. S. Lake, A. Glaister & N. R. Bond, 2006. Effects of sand sedimentation on macroinvertebrate fauna of lowland streams: are the effects consistent? Freshwater Biology 51: 144–160.
Eyles, R. J., 1977. Changes in drainage networks since 1820, Southern Tablelands, NSW. Australian Geographer 13: 377–386.
Faith, D. P. & R. H. Norris, 1989. Correlation of environmental variables with patterns of distribution and abundance of common and rare freshwater macroinvertebrates. Biological Conservation 50: 77–98.
Frissell, C. A., W. J. Liss, C. E. Warren & M. D. Hurley, 1986. A hierarchical framework for stream habitat classification: viewing streams in a watershed context. Environmental Management 10: 199–214.
Gooderham, J. & E. Tsyrlin, 2002. The Waterbug Book. A Guide to the Freshwater Macroinvertebrates of Temperate Australia. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne.
Hogg, I. D. & R. H. Norris, 1991. Effects of runoff and land clearing and urban development on the distribution and abundance of macroinvertebrates in pool areas of a river. Australian Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research 42: 507–518.
Hynes, H. B. N., 1970. The Ecology of Running Waters. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool.
Hynes, H. B. N., 1975. The stream and its valley. Verhandlungen der Internationale Vereiningung für theoretische und angewandte Limnologie 19: 1–15.
Kaller, M. D. & K. J. Hartman, 2004. Evidence of a threshold level of fine sediment accumulation for altering benthic macroinvertebrate communities. Hydrobiologia 518: 95–104.
Lake, P. S., 2005. Perturbation, restoration and seeking ecological sustainability in Australian flowing waters. Hydrobiologia 552: 109–120.
Leopold, L. B., M. G. Wolman & J. P. Miller, 1964. Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology. Dover Publications, Mineola, NY.
Marchant, R., 1989. A sub sampler for samples of benthic invertebrates. Bulletin of the Australian Society of Limnology 12: 49–52.
Marchant, R., D. Ryan & L. Metzeling, 2006. Regional and local species diversity patterns for lotic invertebrates across multiple drainage basins in Victoria. Marine and Freshwater Research 57: 675–684.
Nichols, S., P. Sloane, J. Coysh, C. Williams & R. Norris, 2000. Australian Capital Territory, Australian River Assessment System (AUSRIVAS), Sampling and Processing Manual. Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, University of Canberra, Canberra.
Norris, R. H. & A. Georges, 1993. Analysis and interpretation of benthic macroinvertebrate surveys. In: Rosenberg D. M. & V. H. Resh (eds) Freshwater Biomonitoring and Macroinvertebrates. Chapman and Hall, New York: 234–286.
Norris, R. H., I. Prosser, B. Young, P. Liston, N. Bauer, N. Davies, F. Dyer, S. Linke & M. Thoms, 2001. The Assessment of River Conditions (ARC): An Audit of the Ecological Condition of Australian Rivers. Final Report submitted to the National Land and Water Resources Audit Office, Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology and CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra.
Norris, R. H. & M. C. Thoms, 1999. What is river health? Freshwater Biology 41: 197–209.
Olley, J. M. & R. J. Wasson, 2003. Changes in the flux of sediment in the Upper Murrumbidgee catchment, Southeastern Australia, since European settlement. Hydrological Processes 17: 3307–3320.
Parsons, M. & R. H. Norris, 1996. The effect of habitat-specific sampling on biological assessment of water quality using a predictive model. Freshwater Biology 36: 419–434.
Prosser, I., P. Rustomji, B. Young, C. Moran & A. Hughes, 2001a. Constructing river basin sediment budgets for the National Land and Water Resources Audit. Technical Report Number 15/01, CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra, ACT.
Prosser, I. P., I. D. Rutherfurd, J. M. Olley, W. J. Young, P. J. Wallbrink & C. J. Moran, 2001b. Large-scale patterns of erosion and sediment transport in river networks, with examples from Australia. Marine and Freshwater Research 52: 81–99.
Rosenberg, D. M. & V. H. Resh, 1993. Introduction to freshwater biomonitioring and benthic macroinvertebrates. In: Rosenberg D. M. & V. H. Resh (eds) Freshwater Biomonitoring and Macroinvertebrates. Chapman and Hall, New York: 1–9.
Rutherfurd, I. D., 2000. Some human impacts on Australian stream channel morphology. In: Brizga S. & B. Finlayson (eds) River Management: The Australasian Experience. John Wiley and Sons Ltd, Melbourne: 11–49.
Simpson, J. C. & R. H. Norris, 2000. Biological assessment of river quality: development of AUSRIVAS models and outputs. In: Wright J. F. & D. W. Sutcliffe, M. T. Furse (eds) Assessing the Biological Quality of Fresh Waters: RIVPACS and Other Techniques. Freshwater Biological Association, Ambleside, Cumbria, UK: 125–142.
Swanston, D. N., 1991. Natural Processes. American Fisheries Society Special Publication 19: 139–179.
Townsend, C. R., S. Doledec, R. Norris, K. Peacock & C. Arbuckle, 2003. The influence of scale and geography on relationships between stream community composition and landscape variables: description and prediction. Freshwater Biology 48: 768–785.
Wasson, R. J., R. K. Mazari, B. Starr & G. Clifton, 1998. The recent history of erosion and sedimentation on the Southern Tablelands of southeastern Australia: sediment flux dominated by channel incision. Geomorphology 24: 291–308.
Waters, T. F., 1995. Sediment in Streams: Sources, Biological Effects and Control. American Fisheries Society, Maryland, USA.
White, L. J., I. D. Rutherfurd & R. E. Hardie, 1999. On the cost of stream management and rehabilitation in Australia. In Rutherfurd, I. D. & R. Bartley (eds), Second Australian Stream Management Conference, 697–704.
Wilkinson, S. N., I. P. Prosser & A. O. Hughes, 2006. Predicting the distribution of bed material accumulation using river network sediment budgets. Water Resources Research 42: 1–17.
Wood, P. J. & P. D. Armitage, 1997. Biological effects of fine sediment in the lotic environment. Environmental Management 21: 203–217.
Wood, P. J. & P. D. Armitage, 1999. Sediment deposition in a small lowland stream: management implications. Regulated Rivers: Research & Management 15: 199–210.
Wood, P. J., J. Toone, M. T. Greenwood & P. Armitage, 2005. The response of four lotic macroinvertebrate taxa to burial by sediments. Archiv fur Hydrobiologie 163: 145–162.
Wright, J. F., 1995. Development and use of a system for predicting the macroinvertebrate fauna in flowing waters. Australian Journal of Ecology 20: 181–197.
Wright, J. F., M. T. Furse & P. D. Armitage, 1993. RIVPACS: a technique for evaluating the biological quality of rivers in the U.K. European Water Pollution Control 3: 15–25.
Wright, J. F., D. Moss, P. D. Armitage & M. T. Furse, 1984. A preliminary classification of running-water sites in Great Britain based on macro-invertebrate species and the prediction of community type using environmental data. Freshwater Biology 14: 221–256.
Young, C., 2003. Sediment slug mapping in the Murrumbidgee River and select tributaries – methods paper. DLWC Centre for Natural Resources, Queanbeyan.
Acknowledgements
Thanks goes to the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra, eWater CRC and to the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship for providing support for this project; Paul Rustomji, Jeremy Groves, Michael Peat and Sue Nichols for reading drafts of the manuscript; Nicky Grigg, David Williams, Andrew Bell and three anonymous reviewers for greatly improving the manuscript.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Handling editor: D. Dudgeon.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Harrison, E.T., Norris, R.H. & Wilkinson, S.N. Can an indicator of river health be related to assessments from a catchment-scale sediment model?. Hydrobiologia 600, 49–64 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9175-1
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9175-1