The Development of a Nonwadable Rivers Assessment Protocol for
 Michigan Rivers

Richard W. Merritt, Michigan State University, Kenneth W. Cummins,
 South Florida Water Management District, and J. David Allan, University
 of Michigan

Sponsor: Michigan Department of Natural Resources

 
The sampling of nonwadable rivers to etermine macroinvertebrate abundance and diversity, and to assess physical habitat quality, has been neglected relative to small, wadable streams and rivers.  This lack of suitable techniques and protocols has severely hampered our ability to assess the effects of environmental stressors on larger rivers (order 5 and above).  We propose to develop a Manual of Procedures that will be suitable for general use by field monitoring crews and laboratory technicians who are tasked with conducting assessments of river ecological health.
 
River Raisin Au Sable River

The research plan includes five phases:

  1. Develop  a protocol for nonwadable river biological integrity and physical habitat assessment suitable for Michigan rivers of order 5 and greater based on studies of large rivers elsewhere.
  2. Produce a draft Manual of Procedures based on this protocol.
  3. Use the draft Manual of Procedures to conduct an intensive field test of the protocol in three selected reaches of the Kalamazoo River
  4. Use the draft Manual of Procedures to conduct an extensive field test of the protocol in five additional nonwadable rivers in Michigan, selected to be representative of geographical distribution and ecological condition.
  5. Use analysis of the intensive and extensive field datato refine the Manual and produce a final document.