CIMP 174: The Impacts of Recent Wildfires on Northern Stream Ecosystems

This study examines the impact of recent wildfire on freshwater streams within the North Slave, South Slave, and Dehcho regions of the Northwest Territories (Canada) through analysis of their water chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages. Benthic macroinvertebrates, or the macroscopic organisms living within/on the substrate of these streams, were sampled following methodologies outlined by the Canadian Aquatic Biomonitoring Network (CABIN). Biological indices (ex. EPT) were calculated and compared statistically to determine relationships regarding benthic diversity and abundance. Results of this study suggest that recent wildfires cause at minimum short-term perturbations in water quality, such as increased turbidity and TSS. In addition, results indicate slight structural changes in invertebrate communities of burned streams compared to unburned streams, including increased richness and abundance of collector-gatherer taxa. This dataset contains water quality data from 21 streams across the South Slave, and Dehcho regions. This project is funded by the Cumulative Impact Monitoring Program (project 174).