Assessment of aquatic macroinvertebrates from Tangihua Forest, Northland, using an integrative taxonomic approach

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Abstract

Macroinvertebrate sampling is a widely used tool for monitoring stream ‘health’ and water quality globally and in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this study, macroinvertebrates were sampled from a Tangihua Forest stream as part of a university taxonomy course, with 26 operational taxonomic units initially identified in the field. More detailed identification using an integrative taxonomic approach (a combination of lab-based morphological work, community input (iNaturalist), and DNA barcoding (COI)) further refined this data set to a total of 19 taxa identified to genus or species level, (plus an estimated 12 additional leptophlebiid mayfly taxa that were not initially recognised as distinct) and five further taxa identified to order or family. To enable future comparative work, COI sequences have been uploaded and are publicly available on BOLD Systems (project code AMPS) and GenBank. The diversity of ‘sensitive’ taxa observed suggests moderate to high water quality and stream health at this site, despite considerable human impacts, including kauri logging in the previous century and introduced species.

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Published

2024-12-10

How to Cite

[1]
Barnard, B., Braid, H., Bishop, C., Pohe, S.R., Jones, M. and Bolstad, K. 2024. Assessment of aquatic macroinvertebrates from Tangihua Forest, Northland, using an integrative taxonomic approach. The Wētā. 58, (Dec. 2024), 40–54.

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