The Australian River Assessment Scheme (AUSRIVAS) was developed by the Cooperative
Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology (Davies 2000; Simpson & Norris 2000) as a tool to
assess the health of inland riverine environments using the resident macroinvertebrate
community. The development of the first set of AUSRIVAS models for the Northern Territory
(NT) began in 1994 and a final report on those territory-wide AUSRIVAS models was
completed in 2002 (Dostine 2002).
The first regional model in the NT was developed for the Darwin-Daly region and was based on
genus-level macroinvertebrate identification (Dostine 2004). This higher (but more resourceintensive)
level of taxonomic resolution, compared with standard family-level of identification
usually adopted for AUSRIVAS models, was aimed at detecting changes to stream health. With
the intention of reducing resources needed for identification of AUSRIVAS samples, a secon d
model for the Darwin-Daly region was developed, based on family-level macroinvertebrate
identification (Barlow & Lamche 2005).
This manual details the procedures necessary to carry out a stream health assessment using the
Darwin-Daly regional models based on genus or family-level identification. It also includes
sections of the NT AUSRIVAS Sampling and Processing Manual originally developed by
Lloyd & Cook (1998).
The Darwin-Daly region genus-level model has been shown to be more sensitive to the
detection of impact (Lamche & Fukuda, in preparation) and given adequate resources, is
preferred to the family-level model.,
Notes
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT),
Table of contents
1. SUMMARY -- 2. INTRODUCTION -- 3. DATA COLLECTION -- 3.1 INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR COMPREHENSIVE STREAM HEALTH ASSESSMENT -- 3.2 FIELD WORK -- 3.2.1 Site Selection -- 3.2.2 Sampling Period -- 3.2.3 Habitat sampled: Edge -- 3.2.4 Field trip preparation -- 3.2.5 Water Quality Sampling -- 3.2.6 Macroinvertebrate Sampling -- 3.2.7 Sample preparation for storing -- 3.2.8 Macroinvertebrate habitat information -- 3.2.9 Description of the reach -- 3.3 LABORATORY PROCEDURES -- 3.3.1 Registration and storage of samples -- 3.3.2 Macroinvertebrate sample processing, identification and enumeration -- 3.3.3 Macroinvertebrate Quality Control/Quality Assurance (QA/QC) Procedures -- 3.3.4 External QA/QC -- 3.3.5 Data Processing -- 4. APPLYING THE DARWIN-DALY REGIONAL AUSRIVASMODELS -- 4.1 PREDICTOR VARIABLES -- 4.1.1 Latitude/Longitude -- 4.1.2 Distance from source (km): -- 4.1.3 Stream order (no dimension): -- 4.1.4 Stream width (m): -- 4.1.5 Alkalinity (mg/L CaCO3): -- 4.1.6 Average stream velocity (m/s): -- 4.1.7 Standard deviation of elevation (m): -- 4.1.8 Riparian rainforest areas (km2): -- 4.2 RUNNING OF DARWIN-DALY REGION AUSRIVAS MODELS -- 4.3 ASSESSING STREAM HEALTH OR CONDITION -- 4.3.1 AUSRIVAS model outputs -- 4.3.2 Assessing stream health or condition -- 5. REFERENCES -- 6. APPENDIX 1 - FIELD SHEETS -- 7. APPENDIX 2: EXAMPLE OF A MACROINVERTEBRATE COUNT AND IDENTIFICATION SHEET (FRONT AND BACK PAGES),
Language
English,
Subject
Water quality -- Australia -- Darwin Region (N.T.) -- Measurement,
Water quality -- Australia -- Daly River Basin (N.T.) -- Measurement,
Water -- Pollution -- Australia -- Darwin Region (N.T.) -- Measurement,
Water -- Pollution -- Australia -- Daly River Basin (N.T.) -- Measurement,
Stream ecology -- Australia -- Darwin Region (N.T.),
Stream ecology -- Australia -- Daly River Basin (N.T.),
Darwin Daly Regional,
AUSRIVAS,