Patterns in macroinvertebrate community composition and recommendations for monitoring in the Daly River system

P. Dostine
Department of Lands Planning and Environment

This project contributed to the development of a broad-scale monitoring programme for aquatic ecosystems in the Daly River basin, a priority catchment in the Northern Territory. Objectives of the study are to describe patterns in macroinvertebrate community composition at two levels of taxonomic resolution and to make broad recommendations on the design of monitoring programmes for stream and river environments in the Daly River system. Further work will lead to the construction of catchment-specific predictive models using data from fine-scale taxonomic description of community structure.

Macroinvertebrates are a useful assessment tool, to monitor the health of stream environments. Some species/families will only been found in certain healthy conditions.