Date of Submission
Spring 2021
Academic Program
Environmental and Urban Studies
Project Advisor 1
Robyn Smyth
Abstract/Artist's Statement
Though environmental managers are increasingly turning to dam removal and alteration to mitigate the economic and environmental costs associated with their maintenance and operation, little is known about the potential environmental impacts of these management decisions as data is often not collected prior to and following implementation of changes. A biological assessment of a reach downstream of a prospective micro-hydroelectric project site was conducted in order to generate baseline data for the development of an adaptive management plan to assess the effects of small-scale hydro power projects on stream conditions. Biotic integrity of the reach downstream of the Annandale Dam (Annandale-On-Hudson, NY) and three other distinct riparian habitats along the Saw Kill were evaluated using six family-level metric indices, non-multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and indicator family analysis. Results indicated that the riparian habitats of the Saw Kill are characterized by little to no biological degradation. Multimetric index scores of the Annandale Dam were comparable to those of other good quality riparian habitats along the Saw Kill, suggesting that the presence of the dam does not substantially impair the water quality of downstream areas. Future biological assessments should focus on accounting for the effect of seasonal variation on macroinvertebrate community composition.
Open Access Agreement
On-Campus only
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Chen, Olive Streeter, "A Multimetric Analysis of Benthic Macroinvertebrates Present Downstream of a Small, Run-of-the-River Dam in Upstate New York" (2021). Senior Projects Spring 2021. 53.
https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2021/53
This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.
Bard Off-campus DownloadBard College faculty, staff, and students can login from off-campus by clicking on the Off-campus Download button and entering their Bard username and password.