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Best management practices (BMPs) are tools commonly used to mitigate negative impacts of agriculture on water quality; however, the relationship between BMPs and aquatic ecological function is unknown. Our research goal was to determine the association between both stream ecosystem metabolism and water quality, and the abundance and location of four different BMPs in agricultural catchments. Dissolved oxygen was measured over a two-week period in mid-June and used to estimate ecosystem metabolism of 13 headwater streams representing a gradient of BMP implementation in Southern Ontario, Canada. Stepwise regression analyses were used to associate stream metabolism and water quality with metrics describing the abundance and location of BMPs within each catchment. Studied streams exhibited rates of metabolism comparable to catchments from other agricultural regions. However, metrics of BMP implementation were not associated with either stream metabolism or water quality. Our results suggest that BMPs in the studied agricultural catchments are not improving water quality or mitigating water quality impacts on stream metabolism during the summer season. We propose that seasonality of catchment hydrology and time lag effects associated with past agricultural land use may be masking the mitigation benefits of BMPs on stream ecosystem conditions during the summer season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bioassessment assumes that ecological conditions remain stable in the absence of environmental changes. Evidence suggests this assumption may hold for reference streams, but knowledge gaps remain for impacted streams. Our study quantified interannual variation of benthic macroinvertebrate communities, monitored for at least 14 years in eight impacted streams in the Upper Thames River watershed in Ontario, Canada. Benthic communities exhibited moderate interannual variation in relative abundance of EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera) and Chironomidae taxa. Year-to-year changes were reflected in lower community persistence than that observed in studies of reference streams. In contrast, tolerance-based metrics showed minimal interannual variation, suggesting compositional changes were because of taxonomic substitutions, in which one tolerant taxon replaced another. Analyses indicated limited directionality in temporal variation for most bioassessment metrics. An exception was taxa richness, which increased at most sites, possibly because of changes in subsampling. However, no associations between calculated bioassessment metrics and measured environmental factors (stream flow and water chemistry) or sampling procedures were observed. We conclude interannual variation in ecological conditions can be substantial and may not be associated with deterministic factors routinely measured in stream assessments. We recommend increased sampling frequency and traits-based assessment as options for limiting effects of interannual variation on assessment results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]