BIOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY OF WETLAND AND STREAM HABITATS ON THE DELMARVA PENINSULA USING AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATES

Abstract

Biological connectivity is the connection of habitats through the movement of organisms that need to utilize said habitats to maintain their life history. Macroinvertebrate communities in freshwater can create biological connectivity by dispersing between temporary and permanent water sources. For this study, I collected and analyzed seasonal and temporal macroinvertebrate data to understand macroinvertebrate communities in six Delmarva Bays and four surrounding streams and identify potential overlapping genera between habitats. Environmental data was also collected to understand seasonal and temporal similarities and differences between Delmarva Bays and streams. For environmental data, Delmarva Bays and streams were most similar during the winter sampling period and become progressively dissimilar until summer sampling periods. For macroinvertebrate data, there were seventeen overlapping taxa that were found within predator and collector-gather feeding guilds. From this data, I can conclude that there is a potential for isolated wetlands and streams to have a biological connection.