The Benthic Fauna in Four Small Southern Appalachian Streams

Monthly quantitative samples of benthic organisms were collected from streams in four different watersheds from August 1968 through July 1969. Each of the watersheds supports one of the follow-ing types of vegetation: old-field succession, hardwood forest, white pine forest with a few hardwoods, coppice forest. The kinds of or-ganisms in the four streams were generally similar but their relative importance varied significantly. A Duncan's multiple-range test showed significant differences in the numbers of most taxa among the water-sheds. The old-field stream had the greatest abundance while the cop-pice stream had the greatest standing crop biomass. The white pine stream had lowest standing crops of both numbers and biomass. Most of the differences among watersheds were attributed to different inputs of allochthonous detritus.