Many water quality standards for pollutants in streams are based on laboratory toxicity tests that rely on macroinvertebrate species that are easy to handle in the laboratory. Unfortunately, these standard test species generally do not live in streams, and their sensitivity relative to most native stream species is unknown. This project measures lethal and nonlethal responses of mayflies exposed to water from streams flowing out of valleys filled with mountaintop mining overburden in West Virginia and Kentucky. It builds on our experience in rearing the parthenogenetic mayfly Centroptilum triangulifer in the laboratory by comparing responses of C. triangulifer from White Clay Creek with responses of five mayfly species collected from small streams in West Virginia.

(Project details may change over the lifespan of a project. The project description listed here is from the annual report of the most recent project year.)

Funded by: United States Environmental Protection Agency

Principal Investigators: John K. Jackson and Bernard W. Sweeney

Project Years: 2011, 2012, 2013