Monitoring successful urban stream restorations can provide guidance for best practices for restoration design. My case study was located at Critter Creek, a tributary to the Grand River, in northeast Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where due to high flow and tight meanders, six constructed offline ponds have become connected to the main stream and are now online ponds. This project aimed to evaluate how these online (formerly offline) ponds are affecting the restoration of the stream. The majority of research on this topic has concentrated on ponds specifically constructed for stormwater management or on urban restored streams without ponds. In many restoration plans, offline ponds are proposed to compensate for cut-fill balances and/or for habitat diversity. The relationship of these offline ponds to the function and ecology of the channel has not often been assessed. Benthic macroinvertebrates were used as indicators of restoration as a proxy for water quality. Using a Surber sampler, samples were collected in the reaches of the stream upstream of the inlet and downstream of the outlet of each pond. Comparative samples were taken from waterbodies that provided a restored stream without offline ponds and a reference stream. In the laboratory, all benthic macroinvertebrates were identified to the Family level. Ecology-based metrics (EPT, functional feeding groups, etc.) and an index (Hilsenhoff FBI) were used to characterize the assemblages. The Percent Model Affinity (PMA) Method was used to determine the impairment of the streams and Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to determine if differences existed between the samples taken close to the ponds and those not close to the ponds. Those tests were also conducted to determine differences between Critter Creek and the reference and other restored stream. PMA results from monitoring from previous years indicated that Critter Creek was an impaired stream, and this research shows that the stream is still impaired with PMA values less than 33.23% for 83 of 89 samples. Mann-Whitney tests showed that the location in Critter Creek, whether it be adjacent to an online pond or not, does not have an effect on the benthic assemblages. They also indicate that the composition of the benthic assemblages in Critter Creek has not reached the same stage as those in Laurel Creek, the reference stream, or Clair Creek, the other restored stream. While the habitat and functional requirements of organisms between all three streams is similar, the water quality present in Critter Creek is much lower than in the other two streams. Further monitoring could be completed to determine the trajectory of the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in this restoration. However, given that monitoring for the past 10 years has shown that the ecosystem integrity of Critter Creek is not improving, it is advised that action be taken now to improve the stream restoration. The concepts of urban ecology were addressed in this study and a wider-scope monitoring program could be completed to determine the impact of urbanization on the restoration of Critter Creek.

Thesis (M.S.)--Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences Dept., South Dakota State University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

No description available.

Monitoring successful urban stream restorations can provide guidance for best practices for restoration design. My case study was located at Critter Creek, a tributary to the Grand River, in northeast Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, where due to high flow and tight meanders, six constructed offline ponds have become connected to the main stream and are now online ponds. This project aimed to evaluate how these online (formerly offline) ponds are affecting the restoration of the stream. The majority of research on this topic has concentrated on ponds specifically constructed for stormwater management or on urban restored streams without ponds. In many restoration plans, offline ponds are proposed to compensate for cut-fill balances and/or for habitat diversity. The relationship of these offline ponds to the function and ecology of the channel has not often been assessed. Benthic macroinvertebrates were used as indicators of restoration as a proxy for water quality. Using a Surber sampler, samples were collected in the reaches of the stream upstream of the inlet and downstream of the outlet of each pond. Comparative samples were taken from waterbodies that provided a restored stream without offline ponds and a reference stream. In the laboratory, all benthic macroinvertebrates were identified to the Family level. Ecology-based metrics (EPT, functional feeding groups, etc.) and an index (Hilsenhoff FBI) were used to characterize the assemblages. The Percent Model Affinity (PMA) Method was used to determine the impairment of the streams and Mann-Whitney tests were conducted to determine if differences existed between the samples taken close to the ponds and those not close to the ponds. Those tests were also conducted to determine differences between Critter Creek and the reference and other restored stream. PMA results from monitoring from previous years indicated that Critter Creek was an impaired stream, and this research shows that the stream is still impaired with PMA values less than 33.23% for 83 of 89 samples. Mann-Whitney tests showed that the location in Critter Creek, whether it be adjacent to an online pond or not, does not have an effect on the benthic assemblages. They also indicate that the composition of the benthic assemblages in Critter Creek has not reached the same stage as those in Laurel Creek, the reference stream, or Clair Creek, the other restored stream. While the habitat and functional requirements of organisms between all three streams is similar, the water quality present in Critter Creek is much lower than in the other two streams. Further monitoring could be completed to determine the trajectory of the benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages in this restoration. However, given that monitoring for the past 10 years has shown that the ecosystem integrity of Critter Creek is not improving, it is advised that action be taken now to improve the stream restoration. The concepts of urban ecology were addressed in this study and a wider-scope monitoring program could be completed to determine the impact of urbanization on the restoration of Critter Creek.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Several lines of evidence suggest small alpine lakes and ponds are sensitive to nitrogen deposition. Paleolimnological studies, nutrient bioassays, and mesocosm experiments show the positive effects of nitrogen on aquatic alpine primary producers. In particular, alpine pond ecosystems have been inferred to be nitrogen-limited based on low availability of dissolved inorganic nitrogen relative to total phosphorus. However, nitrogen-limitation of alpine ponds has never been tested at the whole-ecosystem level. I performed a replicated in situ whole-pond experiment, consisting of two crossed treatments (2 nitrogen x 2 phosphorus levels) applied across 16 natural alpine ponds (n = 4) immediately following ice-out in 2008. Surprisingly, neither nutrient amendment stimulated phytoplankton or zooplankton abundance although subtle shifts in community composition were detected over a two-month period. Intensive grazing pressure exerted by high densities (> 100 individuals/ m2) of herbivorous Branchinecta paludosa (fairy shrimp) may have suppressed planktonic responses to nutrient additions. Another ecological explanation for the lack of a positive effect of nutrients on phytoplankton abundance was competition from periphyton, which are comparatively more abundant in most shallow ponds on an areal basis. Therefore, density-dependent ecological interactions (competition and predation) may mediate the responses of phytoplankton to nitrogen deposition over ponds situated in extreme environments. / Ecology

Thesis (M.S. - Biological Sciences)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Australia, 2006.