Protection of in-stream biota from urban impacts: minimise catchment imperviousness or improve drainage design?
Christopher J. Walsh
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, Water Studies Centre, Monash University, Clayton, Vic 3800, Australia. Email: Chris.Walsh@sci.monash.edu.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 55(3) 317-326 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF03206
Submitted: 30 December 2003 Accepted: 2 March 2004 Published: 19 May 2004
Abstract
Urbanisation is a looming global threat to in-stream biodiversity, but the best approaches to mitigation are unclear. This paper asks if the protection of in-stream biota, in particular macroinvertebrate assemblages, is dependent on the sequestration of catchments from urbanisation, or if protection in urbanised catchments can be achieved through better drainage design. In-stream macroinvertebrate assemblage composition was assessed for 16 catchments spanning a rural–urban gradient. Catchment imperviousness and drainage connection (the proportion of impervious area directly connected to streams by stormwater pipes), together with other possible driving factors, were assessed as explanatory variables of macroinvertebrate assemblage composition. The proportion of variance explained independently and jointly by each variable was assessed by hierarchical partitioning. Assemblage composition was strongly explained by the gradient of urban density (i.e. a large proportion of variance was jointly explained by variables correlated with the urban gradient; imperviousness, connection, longitude and elevation). However, drainage connection was the strongest independent correlate. Most sensitive taxa were absent from sites with >20% connection. Thus the connection of impervious surfaces to streams by pipes is a more likely determinant of taxa loss than the impervious areas themselves. Low-impact urban design approaches that reduce drainage connection are postulated as the most effective management solution to the protection of stream biota in urban catchments.
Extra keywords: effective impervious area, land use, stormwater threatening process.
Acknowledgments
Macroinvertebrate data were collected as part of Melbourne Water Corporation’s biological monitoring programme, thanks in large part to the support of Rhys Coleman and Graham Rooney. Macroinvertebrates were sampled and identified to family by the Freshwater Ecology section of the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research; thanks to Diane Crowther, Phil Papas and George Canale. Edward Tsyrlin is thanked for his assistance in species identification. Pua Tai Sim and Jaeyong Yoo collated imperviousness and connection data. This paper has been greatly improved by comments from P. L. Angermeier, Nick Bond, Tim Fletcher, Belinda Hatt, Peter Newall, Richard Norris and Geoff Taylor.
References
Arnold, C. L. , and Gibbons, C. J. (1996). Impervious surface coverage: the emergence of a key environmental indicator. Journal of the American Planning Association 62, 243–258.
Beach, D. (2001).
Booth, D. B. , and Jackson, C. R. (1997). Urbanization of aquatic systems—degradation thresholds, stormwater detention, and the limits of mitigation. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 33, 1077–1090.
Callicott, J. B. (2002). Choosing appropriate temporal and spatial scales for ecological restoration. Journal of Biosciences 27, 409–420.
| PubMed |
Center for Watershed Protection (2003).
Chessman, B. C. (1995). Rapid assessment of rivers using macroinvertebrates: a procedure based on habitat-specific sampling, family-level identification and a biotic index. Australian Journal of Ecology 20, 122–129.
Chessman, B. C. , and Williams, S. A. (1999). Biodiversity and conservation of river macroinvertebrates on an expanding urban fringe: western Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Pacific Conservation Biology 5, 36–55.
Chevan, A. , and Sutherland, M. (1991). Hierarchical partitioning. The American Statistician 45, 90–96.
Clarke, K. R. (1993). Non-parametric multivariate analyses of changes in community structure. Australian Journal of Ecology 18, 117–143.
Clarke, K. R. , and Ainsworth, M. (1993). A method for linking multivariate community structure to environmental variables. Marine Ecology Progress Series 92, 205–219.
Clarke, K. R., and Warwick, R. M. (1994).
Coffman, L. S. (2002). Low impact development: smart technology for clean water. Definitions, issues, roadblocks, and next steps. In ‘Global Solutions for Urban Drainage. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Urban Drainage, Portland, Oregon. 8–13 September 2002’. (Eds. E. W. Strecker and W. C. Huber) (American Society of Civil Engineers: Reston, VA, USA.) [CDROM]
Dean, J. C. (1999).
Diamond, J. M. , Bressler, D. W. , and Serveiss, V. B. (2002). Assessing relationships between human land uses and the decline of native mussels, fish, and macroinvertebrates in the Clinch and Powell river watershed, USA. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry 21, 1147–1155.
| PubMed |
Environmental Protection Agency , (1999). 40 CFR parts 9, 122, 123 and 124. National pollutant discharge elimination system - regulations for revision of the water pollution control program addressing stormwater discharges; final rule. Report to Congress on the phase II storm water regulations; notice. Federal Register 64, 68722–68851.
Gergel, S. E. , Turner, M. G. , Miller, J. R. , Melack, J. M. , and Stanley, E. H. (2002). Landscape indicators of human impacts to riverine systems. Aquatic Sciences 64, 118–128.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Gotelli, N. J. , and Colwell, R. K. (2001). Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecology Letters 4, 379–391.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Gotelli, N. J., and Entsminger, G. L. (2003).
Groffman, P. M. , Boulware, N. J. , Zipperer, W. C. , Pouyat, R. V. , Band, L. E. , and Colosimo, M. F. (2002). Soil nitrogen cycle processes in urban riparian zones. Environmental Science & Technology 36, 4547–4552.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Horner, R., May, C. W., Livingston, E., Blaha, D., Scoggins, M., Tims, J., and Maxted, J. (2001). Structural and non-structural BMPs for protecting streams. In ‘Linking Stormwater BMP Designs and Performance to Receiving Water Impact Mitigation. Engineering Research Foundation Conference, Snowmass, Colorado’. (Eds. B. Urbonas) pp. 60–77. (American Society of Civil Engineers: Reston, VA, USA.)
Lammert, M. , and Allan, J. D. (1999). Assessing biotic integrity of streams: effects of scale in measuring the influence of land use/cover and habitat structure on fish and macroinvertebrates. Environmental Management 23, 257–270.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
Leopold, L. B. (1968).
Limburg, K. E. , and Schmidt, R. E. (1990). Patterns of fish spawning in Hudson River tributaries: response to an urban gradient? Ecology 71, 1238–1245.
Lloyd, S. D. , Wong, T. H. F. , and Porter, B. (2002). The planning and construction of an urban stormwater management scheme. Water Science and Technology 45, 1–10.
| PubMed |
Mac Nally, R. (2000). Regression and model-building in conservation biology, biogeography and ecology: The distinction between and reconciliation of ‘predictive’ and ‘explanatory’ models. Biodiversity and Conservation 9, 655–671.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Mac Nally, R. (2002). Multiple regression and inference in ecology and conservation biology: further comments on identifying important predictor variables. Biodiversity and Conservation 11, 1397–1401.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Malmqvist, B. , and Rundle, S. D. (2002). Threats to the running water ecosystems of the world. Environmental Conservation 29, 134–153.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Marchant, R. (1989). A subsampler for samples of benthic invertebrates. Bulletin of the Australian Society for Limnology 12, 49–52.
Maxted, J. (1999). The effectiveness of retention basins to protect downstream aquatic life in three regions of the United States. In ‘Comprehensive Stormwater and Aquatic Ecosystem Management. First South Pacific Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. Vol. 1’. (Eds. M. Malone) pp. 215–222. (New Zealand Water and Wastes Association: Auckland, New Zealand.)
May, C. W., and Horner, R. R. (2002). The limitation of mitigation-based stormwater management in the Pacific Northwest and the potential of a conservation strategy based on low-impact development principles. In ‘Global Solutions for Urban Drainage. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Urban Drainage, Portland, Oregon. 8–13 September 2002’. (Eds. E. W. Strecker and W. C. Huber) (American Society of Civil Engineers: Reston, VA, USA.)
Morley, S. A. , and Karr, J. R. (2002). Assessing and restoring the health of urban streams in the Puget Sound Basin. Conservation Biology 16, 1498–1509.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Paul, M. J. , and Meyer, J. L. (2001). Streams in the urban landscape. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 32, 333–365.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
R Development Core Team. (2003).
Resh, V. H. and Jackson, J. K. (1993). Rapid assessment approaches to biomonitoring using benthic macroinvertebrates. In
Riley, A. L. (1998).
Roth, N. E. , Allan, J. D. , and Erickson, D. E. (1996). Landscape influences on stream biotic integrity assessed at multiple spatial scales. Landscape Ecology 11, 141–156.
Roy, A. H. , Rosemond, A. D. , Paul, M. J. , Leigh, D. S. , and Wallace, J. B. (2003). Stream macroinvertebrate response to catchment urbanisation (Georgia, USA). Freshwater Biology 48, 329–346.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Stepenuck, K. F. , Crunkilton, R. L. , and Wang, L. (2002). Impacts of urban landuse on macroinvertebrate communities in southeastern Wisconsin streams. Journal of the American Water Resources Association 38, 1041–1051.
Tiller, D., and Metzeling, L. (1998).
Tourbier, J. T. (1994). Open space thorough stormwater management. Helping to structure growth on the urban fringe. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 49, 14–21.
Townsend, C. R. , Doledec, S. , Norris, R. , Peacock, K. , and Arbuckle, C. (2003). The influence of scale and geography on relationships between stream community composition and landscape variables: description and prediction. Freshwater Biology 48, 768–785.
Underwood, A. J. (1994). Spatial and temporal problems with monitoring. In
Walsh, C., and Mac Nally, R. (2003).
Walsh, C. J. (1997). A multivariate method for determining optimal subsample size in the analysis of macroinvertebrate samples. Marine and Freshwater Research 48, 241–248.
Walsh, C. J. (2000). Urban impacts on the ecology of receiving waters: a framework for assessment, conservation and restoration. Hydrobiologia 431, 107–114.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Walsh, C. J. , Papas, P. J. , Crowther, D. , Sim, P. T. , and Yoo, J. (2004). Stormwater drainage pipes as a threat to a stream-dwelling amphipod of conservation significance, Austrogammarus australis, in south-eastern Australia. Biodiversity and Conservation 13, 781–793.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |
Wang, L. and Lyons, J. (2003). Fish and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages as indicators of stream degradation in urbanizing watersheds. In Biological Response Signatures. In
Wang, L. , Lyons, J. , and Kanehl, P. (2001). Impacts of urbanization on stream habitat and fish across multiple spatial scales. Environmental Management 28, 255–266.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | PubMed |
