Finding Patterns in Nature:
The Aquatic Community Classification Project

Life in Pennsylvania’s 83,000 miles of streams is amazingly diverse. From headwater mountain brooks to the broad Ohio River, our aquatic environments offer a tremendous variety of habitats, sheltering thousands of different aquatic organisms. Pennsylvania’s flowing waters are home to more than half of the mayfly species in North America and support 194 species of fish. More than 130 species of stoneflies are known to exist here and more than 50 freshwater mussels, many of which are considered imperiled, can be found on stream bottoms across the Ohio River Basin.



While many studies of Pennsylvania’s aquatic resources have been conducted, the state has no standardized methods to sample, identify, classify and characterize aquatic communities. Furthermore, few studies have examined patterns of interaction within aquatic communities or the interaction of living communities with their ecosystem. This lack of a comprehensive classification of aquatic communities hampers management and conservation of Pennsylvania’s aquatic biodiversity.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy is partnering in a multi-phased Pennsylvania Aquatic Community Classification (ACC) project, sponsored by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ (DCNR) PA Natural Heritage Program, and the Department of Environmental Protection. Teamed with The Nature Conservancy (TNC), WPC ecologists are working to identify and describe communities of fish, aquatic insects, freshwater mussels and snails in Pennsylvania’s streams, and to compile a centralized database of aquatic information.

The three-phase project, which began in 2001, is designed to answer three primary questions:

1. What types of natural communities exist?;
2. Where are they found?; and
3. Which locations represent the best, most viable examples of each type?

Phase one, completed in 2004, was a pilot study of eight watersheds. Results of this phase are available on WPC’s and DCNR’s websites.

Currently in phase two of the project, ecologists from WPC and TNC are applying the information from the pilot study to watersheds across the state. This work is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005. The final phase will feature outreach to community watershed associations and conservation groups to demonstrate how the database can be used.

The statewide ACC database will provide a valuable conservation tool in our understanding of streams, the organisms that live in them, and how these organisms respond to their environment. Aquatic communities that are rare or unique will be used to designate priority areas for preservation and protection. Similarly, depleted aquatic communities will indicate watersheds that are in need of stream habitat restoration efforts.

For more information about the ACC, visit WPC’s website or the project website or contact Jeremy Deeds, 412-586-2410.

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