AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND WATER QUALITY OF URBAN LAKES by CRAIG F. WOLF, B.A. A THESIS IN BIOLOGY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE May, 1996 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very thankful for the support and inspiration that so many people have provided me over the years. Foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Daryl Moorhead for his sincere friendship and enduring patience that has guided me throughout the years, and for the many opportunities he has provided me to broaden my horizons. Secondly, I wish to thank Drs. Michael Willig, Tony MoUhagen, and John Zak for serving on my committee and for their invaluable services that have guided me throughout my studies. I also would like to thank Dr. John Bums for his everlasting friendship and belief in me. There were many people that assisted me throughout my project. First, I would like to thank Max Westerfield and Shane Davis, because without their joint interest in urban lakes, there would have been many long nights in the lab. Furthermore, I would like to thank Brad Thomhill and the staff of the Environmental Sciences Laboratory, Texas Tech University, for the analysis of the nutrient data. I thank Dr. Robert Sites (University of Missouri) for the identification and confirmation of invertebrate species, Dianne Hall, for her assistance in collecting invertebrates, and Michele Secrest, for her friendship and moral support. I especially thank the Moorhead family for their continuous support and friendship over the years. Finally, I am very grateful for my family. My mother, father, and sister have provided the endless love and encouragement I needed to achieve my goals. Their perseverance over the past few years has been a major part of my inspiration. Financial support for this research was funded by the Office of Research Services and Ecology Program, Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University. u TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii ABSTRACT v LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION 1 Surface Water Quality 1 Playas of the Southern High Plains 2 Objectives 3 Literature Cited 4 II. EVALUATING WATER QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS IN URBAN LAKES 5 Introduction 5 Urban Lakes of the Southern High Plains 5 Surface Water Quality 6 Objectives 7 Materials and Methods 8 Study Site 8 Water Quality Sampling 9 Water Quality Analyses 10 Data Analyses 12 Results 14 Analysis of Variance 14 Principal Components Analysis 15 Pearson-Product Moment Correlation 16 Discussion 17 Literature Cited 21 III. AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND COMMUNITY COMPOSITION IN URBAN LAKES 37 Introduction 37 Macroinvertebrate Species Diversity 37 Objectives 39 Materials and Methods 39 Study Site 39 Macroinvertebrate Sampling 39 iii Macroinvertebrate Community Analyses 40 Results 44 Richness and Abundances for Individual Lakes 44 Diversity for Individual Lakes 45 Richness and Abundances for Groups of Lakes 46 Community Similarity 46 Principal Components Analysis 48 Discussion 49 Literature Cited 53 IV. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND WATER QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS . OF URBAN LAKES 73 Introduction 73 Species - Environment Relationships 73 Objectives 74 Materials and Methods 74 Results 76 Discussion 77 Literature Cited 82 APPENDICES A. WATER QUALITY DATA 89 B. AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DATA 99 IV ABSTRACT Macroinvertebrate species diversity and community composition are important themes in aquatic ecology, and are often used to evaluate environmental stress resulting from a variety of anthropogenic disturbances. On the Southern High Plains of Texas, urban areas have incorporated lakes into their stormwater and surface-water management systems. Eight urban lakes were selected to include a range of physical and biological features (i.e., lake size, relative potential for nonpoint source pollution, and presence of aquatic vegetation) representative of urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas. These lakes were categorized into three a priori groups based on the above characteristics. I evaluated 16 physicochemical attributes on a monthly basis, from February 1993 to April 1994, and found that 12 of the attributes contributed significantly to differences among groups of lakes during the study. Macroinvertebrate community composition was sampled on six different dates in each lake to capture seasonal patterns in species diversity. No significant differences in species diversity (Fisher's log series a) existed among groups of lakes in the summer or for the combined seasons data, although significant differences did occur in the spring and fall. Groups of lakes that were significantly different represent the extremes in habitat complexity and invertebrate community composition. Community composition of group 1 and 3 lakes were dominated by three to four families of invertebrates, whereas in group 2 lakes, over 60% of species abundance was attributed to one species. Mantel's nonparametric test found a significant association between matrices based on water quality similarities and macroinvertebrate similarities during the fall sampling period. Furthermore, stepwise multiple regression using invertebrate species abundances as the dependent variable and water quality characteristics as the independent variables found significant relationships between corixid, notonectid, chironomid, and cladoceran abundances and salinity, total phosphorus, dissolved oxygen, total organic carbon, and ammonia. These attributes accounted for 33-76% of the variation observed in the abundances of these species. Of the water quality characteristics found to be significant predictors of species abundances, salinity, ammonia, and total organic carbon were correlated significantly to areal extent of multiple family housing and commercial land-use surrounding each lake. These results suggest that land-use may indirectly influence macroinvertebrate community composition of urban lakes. VI LIST OF TABLES 2.1 Characteristics and locations of selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 23 2.2 List of water quality characteristics measured for each selected lake in Lubbock, Texas 24 2.3 Results for two-way Analysis of Variance comparing groups of lakes with respect to physicochemical characteristics 25 2.4 Mean water quality characteristics from urban stormwater runoff and selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 27 3.1 Systematic list of aquatic invertebrate taxa collected from selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 56 4.1 List of dependent and independent variables used in Stepwise Multiple Regression 85 4.2 Results of Mantel Matrix Randomization test to determine whether there are significant positive relationships between water quality and macroinvertebrate similarity matrices 86 4.3 Results of Stepwise Multiple Regression evaluating the relationships between invertebrate abundances and physicochemical characteristics 87 A. 1 Analytical methods outlined by EPA and standard methods with detection-limits 90 A.2 Results of physicochemical analyses performed on selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 91 A.3 Results of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon analyses performed on selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 94 A.4 Descriptive statistics of physicochemical characteristics for selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 97 A.5 Descriptive statistics of nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon characteristics for selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 98 B. 1 Abundance of aquatic invertebrate taxa from selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 100 B .2 Fisher's log series a diversity index for each group of lakes and individual lakes in each of three seasons and for combined seasons 103 Vll LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Map of Lubbock, Texas, identifying selected urban lakes and their drainage patterns 28 2.2 Total area of each land-use category that suppUes direct runoff to selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 29 2.3 Seasonal patterns of specific conductance for selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 30 2.4 Seasonal patterns of temperature for selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 31 2.5 Principal Components Analysis based on monthly physicochemical characteristics for groups of lakes 32 2.6 Seasonal patterns of PC 1 from Principal Components Analysis of physicochemical characteristics for each lake .: 33 2.7 Seasonal patterns of PC 2 from Principal Components Analysis of physicochemical characteristics for each lake 34 2.8 Seasonal patterns of PC 3 from Principal Components Analysis of physicochemical characteristics for each lake 35 2.9 Pearson-Product Moment Correlation correlogram for physicochemical characteristics, precipitation, and land-use categories associated with selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 36 3.1 Taxa richness and total numbers of aquatic invertebrates collected from each lake, for all sampling dates combined 58 3.2 Relative abundance of invertebrates collected from Rushland, Higinbotham, and Wendover lakes (Group 1) 59 3.3 Relative abundance of invertebrates collected from Maxey, Leroy Elmore, and Buster Long lakes (Group 2) 60 3.4 Relative abundance of invertebrates collected from Jack Stevens and Quaker & Brownfield lakes (Group 3) 61 3.5 Rank abundance plots of aquatic invertebrates for selected urban lakes in Lubbock, Texas 62 3.6 Fisher's log series a diversity index for each lake in each of three seasons and for combined data 63 3.7 Fisher's log series a diversity index for each group of lakes in each of three seasons and for combined data 64 Vlll 3.8 Relative abundance of invertebrates for each group