Effects of forested buffers on benthic macroinvertebrate indicators of water quality in the Western Finger Lakes, New York

ABSTRACT

Forested riparian buffers are implemented by watershed managers to reduce pollutant runoff into waterbodies. They have been shown to accomplish this task in rivers and streams, but few studies have investigated their efficacy around lakes. Hemlock and Canadice are oligo-mesotrophic lakes with reforested watersheds, including a shoreline buffer strip. Immediately to the west and east of Hemlock and Canadice, Conesus and Honeoye lakes are unprotected, meso-eutrophic systems with mostly mixed, forested, agricultural, and developed land uses. This study explored whether having a shoreline forest buffer strip supports a macroinvertebrate community indicative of good water quality in lakes. In addition, this study examined relationships between individual subwatershed land use and biotic indicators of water quality, as determined by benthic macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrate community composition showed some dissimilarity between lakes (R = 0.09, p = 0.04), with the largest dissimilarity between Conesus and Honeoye. Comparisons did not follow expected patterns based on land use, management protections, and presence of a shoreline forest buffer strip. No difference was found in a biotic index of water quality between the lakes. The benthic community of each lake was rated as moderately impacted by humans. Subwatershed land use generally did not correlate with biotic indices of water quality within lakes. This finding suggests that near-shore forest buffers had no measurable effect on benthic macroinvertebrate communities and their biotic indicators of water quality. Macroinvertebrate communities in these lakes are likely driven by within-lake habitat conditions and legacy effects of agricultural land.

KEYWORDS:

• benthic macroinvertebrates
• Finger Lakes
• land use change
• riparian buffers
• watershed management

Acknowledgements

We thank the Finger Lakes Institute for funding this project, and Lisa Kleckner and Hillary Mosher in particular for helping with sampling. We also thank the many field and lab crew personnel who made this project possible, including Anthony Marsocci, Katherine Barrett, Keith Owens, Kelly Johnson, Liam O’Hagen, Greg Lawrence, Chelsea Lipp, Jeremy Krauss, and Michelle Edwards. Additionally, thank you to Jim Zollweg and Rebecca Lave for acting as additional sounding boards for the direction of this project and paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this program has been provided by US Fish and Wildlife Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Funds administered through Finger Lakes Lake Ontario Watershed Protection Alliance, and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.