Effects of riparian community structure, sediment size, and water quality on the macroinvertebrate communities in a small, suburban stream

Padden creek, a small second-order stream, was sampled at 4 sites. The upstream site was densely forested and relatively unpolluted. Many taxa were more abundant at this site than the downstream sites which were impacted to varying degrees by channelization, deforestation and nonpoint source pollution. These were populated by pollution-tolerant taxa and had a greater proportion of non-insect taxa. A habitat similar to that found in low reaches of rivers had resulted at the 2 most downstream sites, creating a macroinvertebrate community dominated by collector-gatherers and collector-filterers.