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.