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Final Report <br />State: New Mexico Grant Number: F-59-R-7 <br />Project Title: Investigations of an Index of Biotic Integrity Utilizing Aquatic <br />Macrobenthic Invertebrates for Use in Water Resource and Fishery <br />Management. <br />Contract Period: November 1 1990 to February 28, 1998 <br />Study Objective: To establish adatabase from selected water bodies based on species from <br />four dominant orders of macrobenthic invertebrates (Diptera, <br />Chironomidae• EphemeroptgM Plecoptem, and Trichoptera) as the relate <br />to environmental parameters and fish populations at each site. <br />ABSTRACT <br />This report presents results of research regarding the development of indicies of biotic integrity <br />(IBI's) for perennial streams in New Mexico. To date, the focus of study has been to: (1) evaluate <br />schemes for landscape classification with respect to chemical and physical environmental factors, <br />(2) identify "faunal regions" and determine if they are consistent with regional strata defined by <br />environmental factors, (3) characterize associations, or assemblages, of biota, (4) initiate <br />identification of summary statistics for inclusion in indices of biotic integrity, and (5) develop <br />taxonomic keys for benthic macroinvertebrates and an atlas of chironomid pupal exuviae to <br />facilitate application of an IBI. <br />Major findings are presented in three appended reports. One appended report describes the <br />results of "exploratory" statistical analysis of data from a number of sites in the upper Rio <br />Grande drainage of New Mexico (Appendix 1). <br />A second appended report elucidates the fish faunal regions in New Mexico using cluster <br />analysis of plausible presence/absence records of the late prehistoric to early historic (circa. 1550 <br />a. d.), native fish fauna for 154 sample sites (Appendix 2). Fish faunal regions were defined on <br />the basis of species, genus and reproductive guild. Analyses by these alternative classification <br />schemes were conducted to reveal the strongest correlation with environmental data. We provide <br />a description of how fish faunal assemblages are structured by underlying physical, chemical, <br />and climatic features of their environment prior to large-scale impacts by humans. Native fish <br />faunal regions provide a baseline from which we can assess contemporary changes in fish <br />community structure. Definition of changes in fish assemblages will provide an important metric <br />for inclusion in an IBI. <br />A third appended report delineates general boundaries for aquatic ecoregions in New Mexico <br />(Appendix 3). The purpose of the report is to facilitate the study of fish, benthic <br />macroinvertebrate and chironomid distributions within regions where the composition of the <br />biotic communities might be expected to be similar. Four aquatic ecoregions have been <br />identified that intersect major drainage boundaries and physiographic provinces. This indicates