Journal of Ecosystem & Ecography
Open Access

Research Article

A Three Year Assessment of the Influence of Physical Habitat, Pyrethroids and Metals on Benthic Communities in Two Urban Calfornia Streams

¹University of Maryland, Agricultural Experiment Station, Wye Research and Education Center, Queenstown, Maryland, USA

²Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, Illinois, USA

*Corresponding Author:

Lenwood W. Hall
University of Maryland, Agricultural Experiment Station
Wye Research and Education Center, P.O. Box 169
Queenstown, Maryland 21658, USA
Tel: 410-827-8056
Fax: 410-827-9039
E-mail: lwhall@umd.edu

Received date: July 01, 2013; Accepted date: August 15, 2013; Published date: August 20, 2013

Citation: Hall LW, Killen WD, Anderson RD, Alden III RW (2013) A Three Year Assessment of the Influence of Physical Habitat, Pyrethroids and Metals on Benthic Communities in Two Urban Calfornia Streams. J Ecosys Ecograph 3:133.doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000133

Copyright: © 2013 Hall LW, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and and source are credited.

This three year study was designed to characterize benthic communities (macroinvertebrates) and physical habitat annually in two urban stream areas (Arcade Creek and Salinas streams) in California. Concurrent water quality evaluations, physical sediment parameters, pyrethroids, and bulk metals [including simultaneously extracted metals (SEM) and acid volatile sulfides (AVS) ratios] were also measured in both study areas. The relationship of various benthic metrics to physical habitat metrics, pyrethroids, and metals was evaluated for the the three year data set (2009 -2011) using univariate analysis, stepwise multiple regression analysis and canonical correlation analysis. Habitat conditions were determined to be poor in Arcade Creek and extremely poor in the Salinas streams. Tolerant benthic taxa were dominant in both study areas but degraded communities more apparent in Salinas streams. Canonical correlation analysis of the three year data set for Arcade Creek indicated that, while benthic community diversity was inversely related to toxicants (metals and pyrethroids) in the sediments, community composition appeared to be more closely related to physical habitat quality. The statistical analyses conducted on the three year data set from Salinas streams detected fewer and weaker relationships between benthic metrics and environmental variables than did the analyses of data from Arcade Creek, likely due to the greater degree of overall environmental degradation of the Salinas streams. However, habitat (particularly sediment deposition) appeared to be the most significant stressor. In summary the tthree year data sets for both streams showed more significant relationships with benthic metrics and habitat metrics than with pyrethroid or metals.

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