Macroinvertebrate community structure and its seasonal variation in the Upper Mississippi River, USA: a case study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of the study area in relation to the Upper Mississippi River, and illustrating sample stations at the HB and RIV Generating Stations, 2007–2009.

Figure 2. Mean daily discharge in the Mississippi River at St. Paul, MN, 2007–2009. Shaded bars indicate periods of sample collection. Light gray (solid line) indicates RIV samples; light gray (dashed line) indicates HB samples; and dark gray (solid line) indicates both RIV and HB samples.

Table 1. Mean macroinvertebrate community characteristics and abundances of major taxa in Hester-Dendy samples from the Upper Mississippi River near HB Generating Station.

	Year		Sample depth		Survey period
Variable/taxon	2008	2009	Mid-water	Bottom	June	August	October
	(n = 35)	(n = 36)	(n = 35)	(n = 36)	(n = 24)	(n = 23)	(n = 24)
Total abundance	352	414	421	347	493	315	341
Total taxa richness	25.7	27.3	26.9	26.1	30.7^a	27.1^a	21.7^b
EPT taxa richness	10.8	10.9	12.4*	9.4	12.8^a	11.2^a	8.6^b
Chironomidae richness	10.8	11.8	11.1	11.5	13.3^a	11.3^ab	9.4^b
Percent EPT	40.0	33.1	42.9*	30.3	40.9^a	47.2^a	21.8^b
Percent Chironomidae	47.9	51.5	49.1	50.3	43.4^b	38.7^b	66.6^a
Percent non-insects	10.2	14.9	7.3	17.7*	13.7	12.7	11.2
Gammarus	16.9	28.2	12.6	32.4	44.3	8.3	14.8
Turbellaria	3.8	12.9*	4.5	12.2*	4.9	11.6	8.9
Caenis	20.8	15.9	17.3	19.4	48.0^a	6.2^b	0.3 ^c
M. integrum	8.5	5.1	8.4	5.2	8.4^a	11.4^a	0.7^b
M. pulchellum/terminatum	18.0	18.4	22.6	13.9	17.1	20.0	17.6
Pseudocloeon	7.6	5.2	10.9	1.9	4.6^b	14.8^a	0.1^b
Tricorythodes	10.2	11.0	13.4	7.9	26.7^a	4.5^b	0.4 ^c
Cheumatopsyche	11.2	22.5	25.0	9.1	32.3^a	8.2^b	9.0^b
C. fraternus	8.7	9.0	7.8	9.8	3.6^b	12.2^a	10.8^a
H. bidens/orris	30.9	31.2	47.5*	15.1	38.1	38.9	16.5
P. flava	20.3	15.3	22.9	12.7	7.7	28.8	17.2
Thienemannimyia gp.	8.7	14.2	11.8	11.2	16.3^a	12.6^a	5.6^b
D. lucifer/simpsoni	38.2	33.9	12.5	11.9	0.5^b	3.0^b	32.8^a
D. modestus/neomodestus	14.4	26.1*	24.0	16.5	22.3	13.6	24.5
Glyptotendipes	35.8	87.6*	51.3	72.6	14.5^b	24.7^b	145.6^a
P. convictum gp.	21.8	19.1	26.3	14.7	41.8^a	17.7^a	1.7^b
Stenochironomus	2.9	5.3	3.3	4.8	1.3^b	11.2^a	0.1^b
Rheotanytarsus	29.4	19.7	32.9	16.3	52.3^a	17.0^a	3.9^b
Tanytarsus	4.0	7.6	6.6	5.0	14.1^a	2.5^b	0.7^b
Notes: One-way ANOVAs were performed using study year, depth, and survey period as treatment groups (α = 0.05). Non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis tests were substituted in cases where normality and/or equal variance assumptions were not met.
Asterisks indicate significant differences between two treatment groups.
Means followed by letters indicate significant differences based on Tukey's test or non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test.
Total and taxon-specific abundance values are number per sampling unit (0.1227 m^2).

Table 2. Mean macroinvertebrate community characteristics and abundances of major taxa in Hester-Dendy samples from the Upper Mississippi River near RIV Generating Station.

	Year		Sample depth		Survey period
Variable/taxon	2007	2009	Mid-water	Bottom	May	July	August	October	November
	(n = 60)	(n = 60)	(n = 60)	(n = 60)	(n = 24)	(n = 24)	(n = 24)	(n = 24)	(n = 24)
Total abundance	590	595	541	644	847^bc	474^b	450^b	903^a	289 ^c
Total taxa richness	22.1	20.9	21.0	22.1	23.1^a	24.4^a	22.7^a	16.3^b	21.2^a
EPT taxa richness	7.3	7.9	7.3	7.9	9.0^a	7.7^ab	6.4^b	5.2^b	9.7^a
Chironomidae richness	13.0*	9.7	11.5	11.2	11.1^ab	13.6^a	13.9^ab	8.7 ^c	9.5^bc
Percent EPT	33.5	31.7	31.2	34.0	33.8^abc	33.7^ab	29.3^bc	21.8 ^c	44.2^a
Percent Chironomidae	61.2	56.5	61.5	56.2	52.0^bc	57.0^abc	66.4^ab	72.8^a	46.2 ^c
Percent non-insects	4.9	11.1*	6.8	9.3	13.4^a	8.6^b	3.7^b	5.3^b	9.2^ab
Gammarus	6.7	26.4*	13.8	19.3	16.6	25.0	9.8	17.7	13.7
Oligochaeta	2.9	9.3*	5.2	7.0	8.8	2.6	4.2	8.5	6.4
Turbellaria	4.1	11.6	4.8	10.9	5.3^ab	15.6^a	9.5^ab	8.5^a	0.3^b
Maccaffertium/Stenonema	23.9	19.1	17.7	25.3	24.1	12.5	17.3	20.2	33.3
Cheumatopsyche	7.3	16.2	9.1	14.4	2.3^b	14.8^b	4.5 ^c	4.1^b	33.2^a
C. fraternus	24.9	47.7	33.6	39.1	0.8^b	45.0^a	65.1^a	68.4^a	2.4^b
Polycentropus	1.4	24.3*	11.9	13.8	1.9^b	15.0^a	14.4^ab	22.8^ab	10.2^ab
P. flava	12.9	22.5	13.1	22.3	32.9^a	9.2^b	3.2^b	5.9^b	37.3^a
Ablabesmyia	5.9	5.7	6.0	5.6	8.8^a	6.3^a	4.9^a	7.7^a	1.3^b
Thienemannimyia gp.	5.3	15.3*	8.6	11.9	6.8	13.3	6.4	12.0	12.9
Cricotopus	9.9*	2.7	5.3	7.3	6.1^b	3.7^b	3.6^b	8.2^ab	9.8^a
Dicrotendipes	9.1	56.7*	33.2	32.6	6.0^b	48.6^a	31.0^a	65.9^a	13.0^b
Glyptotendipes	10.1	261.4*	118.0	153.6	6.5^b	66.7^ab	162.7^a	399.5^a	43.4^ab
Polypedilum	26.7*	10.8	17.8	18.5	31.0^ab	23.3^ab	11.2^b	22.4^a	5.9 ^c
Stenochironomus	0.5	22.3*	8.1	14.7	0.0 ^c	13.4^ab	16.1^a	25.7^ab	1.8^b
Rheotanytarsus	60.7*	3.4	30.7	33.4	45.8	39.6	35.5	22.7	16.6
Notes: Asterisks indicate significant differences between two treatment groups.
One-way ANOVAs were performed using study year, depth, and survey period as treatment groups (α = 0.05).
Non-parametric Kruskal–Wallis tests were substituted in cases where normality and/or equal variance assumptions were not met.
Means followed by letters indicate significant differences based on Tukey's test or non-parametric Mann–Whitney U test.
Total and taxon-specific abundance values are number per sampling unit (0.1227m^2).

Figure 3. NMS ordination of macroinvertebrate assemblages from the Upper Mississippi River at the HB Generating Station in St. Paul, MN. (a) Illustrates seasonal and annual groupings among 3 survey periods in 2008 and 2009. Vectors indicate taxa (r ²> 0.37) associated with axes. ‘T w/o HC’ indicates Tubificidae without hair chaetae. (b) Same ordination but symbols indicate sample depth.

Figure 4. NMS ordination of macroinvertebrate assemblages from the Upper Mississippi River at the RIV Generating Station in Minneapolis, MN. (a) Illustrates seasonal and annual groupings among five survey periods in 2007 and 2009. (b) Same ordination but includes vectors for taxa (r ²>0.37) and mean river discharge during surveys.

Table 3. Comparison of the present study to elements of selected other macroinvertebrate studies on the Upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio Rivers.

	Upper Mississippi^a (Rkm 106–114)	Lower Missouri^b (Rkm 151–901)	Upper segment (Rkm 1450–1524)	Ohio River^c Middle segment (Rkm 724–830)	Lower segment (Rkm 111–307)	Upper Mississippi^d (Rkm 1350–1353)
Variables
Total density range (#/m^2)	58,000–163,000	16,000–123,000	260–2780	169–11,322	343–7479	767–8301
Taxa richness	64	52	79	72	70	75
EPT richness	28	22	21	16	17	24
Chironomidae richness	20	15	26	27	24	30
Percent EPT	94	∼90	23	17	16	24
Percent Chironomidae	∼4	∼7	31	34	31	66
Percent non-insects	<2	>4	44	48	52	9
Study design
Sampling method	Rock baskets	Rock baskets	Hester-Dendy			Hester-Dendy
Time of year	October/November	Late Oct-Early Dec	September/October			October
Substrate area sampled (m^2)
for richness estimate	4.5	–	11.5	3.1
Notes: For the Missouri and Ohio Rivers, rkm indicates distance upstream of their entrances into the Mississippi River.
For the Upper Mississippi River, rkm indicates distance upstream of the entrance of the Ohio River into the Mississippi River.
^aBattle et al. (2007) and Jackson et al. (2009)–rock basket samples only.
^bPoulton et al. (2003)–rock basket samples only.
^cORSANCO unpublished data from 2005–2009 samples – representative stations subsampled.
^dThis study–HB data from October only. Oligochaetes were grouped into a single taxon for comparability with other datasets.

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