Survey of Tasmanian benthic macroinvertebrate communities across an agricultural land-use gradient

Macroinvertebrate community and environmental data from 18 cobble–pebble bedded streams across southern and north-west Tasmania across a gradient of upstream catchment conversion to agriculture, sampled in late summer 2021. Catchment land use was quantified in QGIS from state land-use surveys and aggregated into four categories (Uncleared, Forestry, Agriculture, Other). Field sampling included eight 30-second kick samples per site, with taxa identified to the finest feasible level (species/morphospecies for Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera and others, genus/family/class as appropriate). The eight kick samples were pooled together for this data set. Environmental measurements included water quality (dissolved oxygen, temperature, conductivity, flow), stream morphology (depth, wetted/bankfull width), and substrate composition, with an interstitial sediment coefficient (ISC) calculated to estimate fine sediment levels.

2021年夏末，对塔斯马尼亚州南部与西北部共18条砾石-卵石底质溪流开展采样，该区域上游集水区存在向农业用地转化的梯度差异，本数据集涵盖采集得到的大型底栖无脊椎动物（macroinvertebrate）群落数据与环境数据。研究基于州级土地利用调查数据，通过QGIS量化集水区土地利用情况，并将其划分为四类：未开垦地（Uncleared）、林业用地（Forestry）、农业用地（Agriculture）及其他用地（Other）。野外采样环节共在每个采样点开展8次时长30秒的踢扫采样，所有分类单元均鉴定至可行的最精细等级：对于蜉蝣目（Ephemeroptera）、襀翅目（Plecoptera）、毛翅目（Trichoptera）及其他类群，鉴定至物种/形态种；其余类群则根据实际情况鉴定至属、科或纲级别。本数据集将同个采样点的8次踢扫采样样品进行混合合并。环境测量指标涵盖水质（溶解氧、水温、电导率、流量）、溪流形态（水深、湿周/满岸宽度）以及底质组成，并通过计算间隙沉积物系数（ISC）以估算细颗粒沉积物含量。