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Macroinvertebrate Inventory of High Elevation Springs in Shenandoah National Park 2023-2024 - Open Format Dataset

Metadata Updated: November 13, 2025

Shenandoah National Park contains hundreds of natural springs which help form the headwaters of three major watersheds that empty into Chesapeake Bay. Virginia Tech partnered with the National Park Service Inventory and Monitoring program to sample macroinvertebrates and environmental measures related to water quality, habitat availability, and human use at 63 springs within the park, of which, 59 could were assessed and analyzed. The goals of this inventory were to assess the distributions of macroinvertebrates across springs in the park. Additionally, we sought to determine whether macroinvertebrate diversity and the presence of rare taxa have been impacted by modifications made to springs and/or by visitor use. We identified 205 unique taxa across the 59 springs. Of those taxa, we identified 17 rare taxa using NatureServe’s Conservation Status Rank. Rare taxa were present in 32 springs, 19 of which were modified and 13 were unmodified. Class Insecta represented 90% of rare taxa that were mostly in orders Trichoptera, Plecoptera, Ephemeroptera and Odonata. There was no difference in total taxa richness or abundance between the spring types. Richness and abundance for all taxa and for rare taxa were greater, on average, in modified springs; however, these differences were not statistically significant. The diversity of spring types, locations and habitats appear to support a diversity of species that are not being negatively affected by visitor usage or spring box infrastructure. The springs provide a regional species pool at high density that are likely source populations for the headwater streams.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: us-pd

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 13, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI NPS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date November 13, 2025
Publisher National Park Service
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/nps-datastore-2311166
Data First Published 2025-05-06T00:00:00Z
Data Last Modified 2025-05-06T00:00:00Z
Category Data Package
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:24
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/nps-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 45008c85-394d-4d20-9b21-27ccb84a423f
Harvest Source Id d917c1a9-26b7-43ea-b8c5-c77ec750a850
Harvest Source Title DOI NPS DCAT-US
Homepage URL https://irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Reference/Profile/2311166
License http://www.usa.gov/publicdomain/label/1.0/
Program Code 010:119, 010:118
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 207bb1e44c1c13e4b240f25efc6d99e47facf69d77843079d76426804a4c0149
Source Schema Version 1.1

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