Urbanization influences the quality and quantity of stream habitat. Understanding the effect of urbanization on stream ecosystems in Austin, TX is especially important since Austin is currently the fastest growing city in the U.S.A. To this end, we used the EPA Rapid Bioassessment Protocol (RBP) to evaluate the habitat quality within streams that flow through the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve, in Austin, Texas. Wild Basin is uniquely situated to for this research area since it is bordered to the west and south by a highway and residential development, respectively, and it is bordered by additional preserve to the north and east. We hypothesized that stream reaches that were closer to the highway would have a lower habitat quality. We used the RBP rubric for low gradient streams with 20 variables to characterize 10 sites at two different time points along an urban gradient within Wild Basin.
Results/Conclusions
Our results indicate that stream reaches located further from urbanization influence had a higher total assessment score. Also, scores for individual habitat variables are highly varied across the preserve. In addition, it appears that proximity to walking trails within the preserve influences stream habitat quality. These findings indicate that this method can be used to make management decisions for preservation and restoration efforts.