Metals concentrations in insect tissues and water from the Panther Creek watershed, Idaho, September 2015

The purpose of this sampling was to collect matched aquatic insect and water samples to support metals mixture toxicity modeling. This is part of a larger study that included exposing naturally colonized insect communities to metals mixtures in long-term laboratory toxicity tests, field surveys, and modeling (Schmidt and others, 2019). The Panther Creek sampling was conducted to give a field comparison to laboratory exposures of aquatic insect communities to cobalt (Co) plus copper (Cu) mixtures, the results of which were presented as part 4 of Schmidt and others (2019). The water samples from the Panther Creek area were collected to interpret metals concentrations in the tissues of mayflies and caddisflies relative to experimental exposures and to compare to community composition. Samples were collected from sites expected to give a gradient of metals concentrations, ranging from natural background reference sites to concentrations expected to be high enough to produce substantial bioaccumulation of metals. References Schmidt, T.S., Mebane, C.A., Miller, J.L., and Balistrieri, L.S., 2019, Effects of metal mixtures on aquatic insect communities in experimental streams: cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn): US Geological Survey Data Release, also available at http://dx.doi.org/10.5066/P9XXBSAK