Scale Dependence in Relating Land Use/Cover to Stream Macroinvertebrate Communities in the Central Appalachian Mountains, USA

Abstract

In this study, we assess the relationship between catchment land use/cover (LUC) and stream macroinvertebrate communities at multiple spatial scales to determine the relative influence of LUC on macroinvertebrates at each spatial scale. Our results indicate that LUC at subcatchment scales was a better predictor of macroinvertebrate communities than catchment-scale LUC. Furthermore, variation explained by catchment-scale LUC was statistically insignificant after removing variation explained by near-stream LUC. We attribute this to the clumped distribution of anthropogenic LUC within the narrow stream valleys of the study area. We conclude that LUC spatial distribution and measurement scale should be considered prior to in-depth analyses relating LUC to stream ecosystems.