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the ephemeral side channel or the river backwater. The genus Pol ilum was collected <br />in all habitat types and sample periods. Total chironomid densities were at their lowest <br />(903/m2) in the June sample of the seasonally inundated wetland and were highest <br />(31,125/m2) in the July river backwater sample (34x greater)(Fig. 5). Unidentifiable <br />early instars were colected in all habitat types and in all sample periods and comprised <br />86% of the river channel sample in August. <br />Other Insects <br />The presence of other insects found during sample sorting are listed in table 5. <br />We determined that density estimates were not appropriate because of the potential <br />avoidance of the core sampler. <br />Cluster Analysis <br />The UPGMA cluster analysis of the benthic invertebrate communities in each <br />habitat type and sample date indicated that sites with similar flow conditions tended to <br />cluster together (Fig. 3). A matrix comparison of original distances calculated using the <br />Bray-Curtis coefficient vs. distances implied from the dendrogram is presented in Fig. <br />4. Correlation between the two was high (r=.907) implying that the dendrogram is an <br />accurate representation of the original Bray-Curtis distances. The ephemeral side channel <br />samples appear to show the greatest similarity (least distance) and the wetland and <br />backwater sites are more similar to one another. However, the first wetland sample <br />series (June, 1991) was more similar to the river channel community. <br />Water Chemistry <br />The lowest temperature recorded during our study was 16° C. in the July <br />11