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A comparison of the effects of urbanization on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in contrasting environmental settings: Massachusetts, Alabama, and Utah

Conference Abstract
By Thomas F. Cuffney, H. Zappia, E.M. Giddings, and J.F. Coles

Abstract

Responses of invertebrate communities to urbanization were investigated in three metropolitan areas (Boston, MA; Birmingham, AL; and Salt Lake City, UT) based on community metrics and multivariate analyses. Responses were measured along an a priori gradient of urban intensity derived from basin-scale population, infrastructure, land-use, and socioeconomic characteriistics. Increasing urban intensity was related to increasing community degradation in all locations. Responses were immediate; that is, invertebrate communities began to degrade as soon as the landscape was modified from background conditions. Rate and form (linear, threshold) of responses varied depending on the response variable and metropolitan area. Many response variables in the Boston area were threshold responses; that is, rapid decreases in condition occurred at low to moderate levels of urban intensity and no response occurred at moderate to high levels of urbanization. Fewer threshold responses were seen in other areas. Of the 126 community metrics investigated, only a few (e.g., EPT richness, tolerance) showed consistent responses among metroploitan areas. Indirect gradient analysis provided a more consistent summary of responses among areas. The strongest relations occurred where the natural environmental variability was the least (Boston). Although the Birmingham study area had complex geology and topography and the Salt Lake study area had extensive hydrologic modifications and a strong elevation gradient, urban responses were still readily detected. Studies of responses to urban-intensity gradients provide an important means for understanding, predicting, and comparing urbanization effects across the country.

Cuffney, T.F., Zappia, H., Giddings, E.M., and Coles, J.F., 2003, A comparison of the effects of urbanization on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in contrasting environmental settings [abs.]: Abstract book of the 133d Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, August 10-14, 2003, Quebec City, Canada, SO-01-18, p. 11.