ABSTRACT
In support of ecological risk assessment efforts, the evaluation of contaminated waterbodies often extends to characterizing the benthic macroinvertebrate community. Sediment samples of the bioactive zone are collected, after which the invertebrates in the samples are separated from the matrix to be identified to the level of phylogenetic family or genus. Where invertivorous fish of contaminated waterbodies are not found to be impacted, the presence and role of pollution-tolerant benthic macroinvertebrates in the sediment will be understood to be unimportant. Independent of what a nutritional analysis might show the phenomenon would be evident. Where contaminated aquatic sites display benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages with distinctly greater proportions of pollution-tolerant forms than expected, often the interpretation is that the site is stressed with ecological function at a subpar state. Perchance, study data will reveal a finding that runs contrary to what practitioners anticipate, namely that fish mostly or exclusively consuming pollution-tolerant macroinvertebrates are larger and/or more robust than fish that consume pollution-intolerant macroinvertebrates.
