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Regional Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Program A Comparison of Macroinvertebrate and Habitat Methods of Data Collection in the Little Colorado River Watershed, Arizona 2007 Publication Number OFR 10-05 A Comparison of Macroinvertebrate and Habitat Methods in the Little Colorado River Watershed, Arizona 2007 A Comparison of Macroinvertebrate and Habitat Methods of Data Collection in the Little Colorado River Watershed, Arizona 2007 Patrice Spindler Arizona Department of Environmental Quality Water Quality Division/Surface Water Section Standards and Assessment Unit/Biocriteria 1110 W. Washington Street Phoenix, AZ 85007 Nick V. Paretti U.S. Geological Survey Arizona Water Science Center 520 N. Park Avenue, Suite 221 Tucson, AZ 85719 Acknowledgements This study was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Regional Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Program grant in 2006. We are grateful to David Peck and Tony Olsen of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for providing us with design assistance, training, Phab data upload help, and advice to implement Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program monitoring in Arizona. Also thanks to Spencer Peterson for agreeing to shepherd this grant through the REMAP grant process. The data for this study was collected jointly with the help of our sister agencies, the Arizona Game and Fish Department and the U.S. Geological Survey. We are thankful for the field oversight provided by the experienced staff and crew chiefs; Lorraine Avenetti and Nick Paretti. Special thanks go to Jason Jones, ADEQ Monitoring Unit Manager, who coordinated the ever-changing monitoring effort, obtained the random sites from EPA and put them in a useable format for the staff, recreated the 5000’ elevation contour map, provided the monitoring staff to complete this project and provided many hours of technical and managerial support for this project. I’m grateful for the data quality control efforts, database maintenance and data crunching support provided by Aiko Condon of ADEQ. Special thanks go to Tony Robinson at AGFD whose thorough review of the document resulted in improved statistical analyses and more concise analyses and whose contract oversight provided for a good working relationship between agencies. Finally, the data could not have been collected without the dedication of our collective field staff: Jimmy Fulmer, Elizabeth Ray, Diana Rogers, Bill Stewart, Renee Wilcox from the AGFD, and Aiko Condon, Anel Avila, Karyn Hanson, Jason Jones, John Woods, Kurt Ehrenberg, Lin Lawson, Lee Johnson, Meghan Smart, Justin Bern, and Sam Rector of Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Cover Photo: Clear Creek downstream of Willow Creek confluence on Mogollon Rim in the Little Colorado River basin (site ID AZ06631-088). 2 A Comparison of Macroinvertebrate and Habitat Methods in the Little Colorado River Watershed, Arizona 2007 Executive Summary The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Ecological Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), use different field methods for collecting macroinvertebrate samples and habitat data for bioassessment purposes. Arizona’s Biocriteria index was developed using a riffle habitat sampling methodology, whereas the EMAP method employs a multi-habitat sampling protocol. There was a need to demonstrate comparability of these different bioassessment methodologies to allow use of the EMAP multi-habitat protocol for both statewide probabilistic assessments for integration of the EMAP data into the national (305b) assessment and for targeted in-state bioassessments for 303d determinations of standards violations and impaired aquatic life conditions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the two methods yield similar bioassessment results, such that the data could be used interchangeably in water quality assessments. In this Regional EMAP grant funded project, a probabilistic survey of 30 sites in the Little Colorado River basin was conducted in the spring of 2007. Macroinvertebrate and habitat data were collected using both ADEQ and EMAP sampling methods, from adjacent reaches within these stream channels. All analyses indicated that the two macroinvertebrate sampling methods were significantly correlated. ADEQ and EMAP samples were classified into the same scoring categories (meeting, inconclusive, violating the biocriteria standard) 82% of the time. When the ADEQ-IBI was applied to both the ADEQ and EMAP taxa lists, the resulting IBI scores were significantly correlated (r=0.91), even though only 4 of the 7 metrics in the IBI were significantly correlated. The IBI scores from both methods were significantly correlated to the percent of riffle habitat, even though the average percent riffle habitat was only 30% of the stream reach. Multivariate analyses found that the percent riffle was an important attribute for both datasets in classifying IBI scores into assessment categories. Habitat measurements generated from EMAP and ADEQ methods were also significantly correlated; 13 of 16 habitat measures were significantly correlated (p<0.01). The visual-based percentage estimates of percent riffle and pool habitats, vegetative cover and percent canopy cover, and substrate measurements of percent fine substrate and embeddedness were all remarkably similar, given the different field methods used. A multivariate analysis identified substrate and flow conditions, as well as canopy cover as important combinations of habitat attributes affecting both IBI scores. These results indicate that similar habitat measures can be obtained using two different field sampling protocols. In addition, similar combinations of these habitat parameters were important to macroinvertebrate community condition in multivariate analyses of both ADEQ and EMAP datasets. These results indicate the two sampling methods for macroinvertebrates and habitat data were very similar in terms of bioassessment results and stressors. While the bioassessment category was not identical for all sites, overall the assessments were significantly correlated, providing similar bioassessment results for the cold water streams used in this study. The findings of this study indicate that ADEQ can utilize either a riffle-based sampling methodology or a multi-habitat sampling approach in cold water streams as both yield similar results relative to the macroinvertebrate assemblage. These results will allow for use of either macroinvertebrate dataset to determine water quality standards compliance with the ADEQ Indexes of Biological Integrity, for which threshold values were just recently placed into the Arizona Surface Water Quality Standards. While this survey did not include warm water desert streams of Arizona, we would predict that EMAP and ADEQ sampling methodologies would provide similar bioassessment results and would not be significantly different, as we have found that the percent riffle habitat in cold and warm water perennial, wadeable streams is not significantly different. However, a comparison study of sampling methodologies in warm water streams should be conducted to confirm the predicted similarity of bioassessment results. ADEQ will continue to implement a monitoring strategy that includes probabilistic monitoring for a statewide ecological assessment of stream conditions. Conclusions from this study will guide decisions regarding the most appropriate sampling methods for future probabilistic monitoring sample plans. 3 A Comparison of Macroinvertebrate and Habitat Methods in the Little Colorado River Watershed, Arizona 2007 Table of Contents Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................................2 Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................3 Table of Contents..........................................................................................................................................4 List of Figures................................................................................................................................................4 List of Tables.................................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................6 Study Area ....................................................................................................................................................6 Methods.........................................................................................................................................................8 Results ........................................................................................................................................................13 Macroinvertebrate Index and Metric Comparison.......................................................................................13 Habitat Metric Comparison - Univariate Statistics.......................................................................................22 Habitat Metric Comparison - Multivariate Habitat Comparison...................................................................26 Habitat Comparison - Multiple Linear Regression Models..........................................................................28