Stream Macroinvertebrate Diversity and Water Quality of Catalpa Creek in Mississippi

The many advantages to using benthic macroinvertebrates in freshwater biomonitoring are now well known and utilizing them in water quality monitoring has become a common practice around the world. Their ubiquity, diversity, and sensitivity to water quality make them excellent indicators of stream health. A study has been performed to identify associations between macroinvertebrate communities and environmental factors such as water quality along tributaries of Catalpa Creek, Mississippi. The macroinvertebrate demographics of two tributaries of Catalpa Creek were assessed. The pollution tolerance index (PTI) of the sampled stream reaches reported, almost exclusively, an “excellent” rating. However, community abundances showed that many samples were dominated tolerant taxa while the most intolerant taxa (indicators of good water quality) were represented by 1 or 2 individuals. Community analysis also showed that stream reaches were vacant, or nearly so, of scrapers and predators, likely due, in part, to the absence of adequate habitat and other resources. Results of this study highlight the importance of ecological metrics and community demographics in the evaluation of stream health.