"Effects of low-intensity summer storms on macroinvertebrate communities in temperate streams"

It has been predicted that climate changes will lead to increased frequency and intensity of storms in the Northeastern United States.  Urbanization increases the area of impervious surfaces that rapidly direct storm water to streams in watersheds.  These two factors in combination has been a cause of extreme concern for Vermont's streams. Storms, precipitation, and the resulting water flow cause disturbance to stream macro-invertebrates communities to a large scale.  While macro-invertebrates have evolved with disturbance, the human-modified disturbances just mentioned may have major impacts on the bentic communities. To measure the effects of high water flow events on stream communities, we sampled before and after storms in four different streams. By comparing pre-storm and post-storm communities in urban and forested watersheds, we tested the combined effects of high flow and urbanization on macro-invertebrates.  We determined that post-storm samples demonstrated biologically important reductions in the abundance and species richness relative to pre-storm samples. These effects differed between urban and forested streams and have important implications for the study of urban stream syndrome as humans manage watersheds as climate changes.