Examining the Recovery of Bolin Creek Following the Drought of 2002: Effects of Urbanization on Resilience
Michael Thure Caire
ABSTRACT:
Human development often has negative impacts on the environment, as do natural disturbances such as drought. These impacts can be observed by examining the sensitive communities in an ecosystem, such as the visible streambed invertebrate community. During 2001-2002 the Piedmont region of North Carolina experienced a prolonged and severe drought, which was broken by a six inch rainfall in October, 2002. I studied the visible streambed community at three sites along a gradient of development in Bolin Creek of Orange County, North Carolina over the course of a year to determine the effects of human development on recovery rates from the drought. I collected insects dwelling in the streambed to evaluate the community’s abundance, the total number of individuals present, and richness, the total taxa represented. Recovery following the drought was complicated by normal seasonal fluctuations in abundance and richness. However, as recovery continued, heterogeneity in population abundance decreased, as expressed by the coefficient of variation. The least developed site recovered with a smaller coefficient of variation than the most developed site. This study expands the understanding of urbanization effects on streams, and provides insights into the mechanisms by which stream communities recover following disturbance.
Caire, M.T., 2003, Examining the recovery of Bolin Creek following the drought of 2002—Effects of urbanization on resilience [abs]: John K. Koeppe Undergraduate Research Symposium in Biology, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, November 14.
