Article Title
Hexagenia Mayflies: Biological Monitors of Water Quality in the Upper Mississippi River
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1989
Keywords
Hexagenia; Water quality
Abstract
ABSTRACT-Analysis of Hexageniamayfiy distribution patterns has proven to be a simple, inexpensive method of monitoring water quality in the Upper Mississippi River. Burrowing Hexagenia nymphs live at the mudwater interface intimately associated with organically enriched sediments that have a strong affinity for contaminants. By their presence or absence in silted habitats, they assess the synergistic effects of hypoxia, toxins, and other stresses throughout the year. Adults are large and easily collected, providing inexpensive water quality monitoring on a river so large that comprehensive chemical, physical, and biological analyses are not logistically feasible or affordable. Pollution abatement in metropolitan Minneapolis-St. Paul allowed a recurrence of Hexagenia in formerly denuded areas of Pool 2 and Lake Pepin during the early 1980s, but the drought of 1988 caused a population crash in both areas, demonstrating that the environment at the mudwater interface was intolerable to Hexagenia during low flow conditions.
First Page
139
Last Page
143
Recommended Citation
Fremling, C. R.
(1989).
Hexagenia Mayflies: Biological Monitors of Water Quality in the Upper Mississippi River.
Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol. 55 No.1, 139-143.
Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/jmas/vol55/iss1/23
Primo Type
Article