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Non-wadeable river bioassessment: spatial variation of benthic diatom assemblages in Pacific Northwest rivers, USA

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Abstract

Current bioassessment efforts are focused on small wadeable streams, at least partly because assessing ecological conditions in non-wadeable large rivers poses many additional challenges. In this study, we sampled 20 sites in each of seven large rivers in the Pacific Northwest, USA, to characterize variation of benthic diatom assemblages among and within rivers relative to environmental conditions. Analysis of similarity (ANOSIM) indicated that diatom assemblages were significantly different among all the seven rivers draining different ecoregions. Longitudinal patterns in diatom assemblages showed river-specific features. Bray–Curtis dissimilarity index values did not increase as a function of spatial distance among the sampled reaches within any river but the Malheur. Standardized Mantel r of association between assemblage similarity and spatial distance among sites ranged from a high of 0.69 (Malheur) to a low of 0.18 (Chehalis). In the Malheur River, % monoraphids, nitrogen-tolerant taxa, and beta-mesosaprobous taxa all decreased longitudinally while % motile taxa, especially Nitzschia, showed an opposite trend, reflecting a strong in-stream water quality gradient. Similar longitudinal trends in water quality were observed in other rivers but benthic diatom assemblages showed either weak response patterns or no patterns. Our study indicated that benthic diatom assemblages can clearly reflect among-river factors. The relationships between benthic diatom assemblages and water quality within each river may depend on the strength of the water quality gradients, interactive effects of water quality and habitat conditions, and diatom sampling design.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by grants to Oregon State University from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (RM832827, Brian Hill, Project Officer), National Marine Fisheries Service (AB133FO8SE3579, Chris Jordan, Project Officer), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (81450-7-J528, Mark Buettner, Project Officer). Field work was conducted by Hank LaVigne, Jason Adams, Tenzin Botsford, Ryan Emig, April Farmer, Bill Freese, Cathy Gewecke, Laurel Genzoli, Elizabeth Hughes, and Scott Wiedemer. Chemical analyses were conducted by the Cooperative Chemical Analytical Laboratory, Forest Science Department, Oregon State University, Fig. 1 was produced by Colleen Johnson, site physical habitat structure values were calculated by Curt Seeliger, and Christian Parker assisted with R programming.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Science and Management, Portland State University, Portland, OR, 97207, USA

    Yangdong Pan

  2. Amnis Opes Institute, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA

    Robert M. Hughes

  3. Departmento de Biologia, Universidade Federal de Lavras, Lavras, MG, 37200-000, Brasil

    Robert M. Hughes

  4. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, c/o US Environmental Protection Agency, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA

    Alan T. Herlihy

  5. US Environmental Protection Agency, 200 SW 35th Street, Corvallis, OR, 97333, USA

    Philip R. Kaufmann

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  1. Yangdong Pan
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Correspondence to Yangdong Pan.

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Pan, Y., Hughes, R.M., Herlihy, A.T. et al. Non-wadeable river bioassessment: spatial variation of benthic diatom assemblages in Pacific Northwest rivers, USA. Hydrobiologia 684, 241–260 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-011-0990-z

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