Recovery of a Stream Invertebrate Community from Flash a Flash Flood in Tesuque Creek, New Mexico

In mid-August 1977, a flash flood disrupted the benthic community of one fork of Tesuque Creek, Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico. One year after the disturbance, the invertebrate communities of flooded and unflooded forks were similar in biomass, numbers, and species diversity. However, even after 2 years some difference in community composition remained. Oligochaetes showed no clear effect from the flood or its aftermath. Diptera recovered rapidly, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera recovered at intermediate rates, and Coleoptera recovered most slowly. Recovery proceeded at approximately equal rates upstream and downstream from the undisturbed fork. Comparing preflood to postflood collections yielded approximately the same picture of recovery as comparing postflood collections from undisturbed and disturbed reaches.