Benthic Monitoring
Benthic macroinvertebrates or “stream bugs,” live in the substrate of rivers and creeks and provide important information about the health of aquatic ecosystems. Many of these organisms are sensitive to changes in their environment, so their presence, abundance, and diversity can reveal shifts in water quality over time. Some species are very specialized and require specific water quality conditions to complete their life cycle, which makes them especially useful as biological indicators. Certain benthic species can only thrive in clean water with low levels of pollution, allowing us to identify when conditions are improving or declining.
GSCA collects benthic samples at 15 sites each year and uses this data to track long‑term ecosystem health that is included in the Watershed Report Card.
BioMAP
BioMAP is a monitoring protocol used to collect and evaluate the benthic organisms that live within stream substrates. Each species is assigned a score based on its sensitivity to environmental change, and the presence or absence of these sensitive organisms influences the overall score for each sample. These scores help us determine whether a site is considered impaired, unimpaired, or transitioning between the two conditions.
