4.2 Aquatic Communities
4.2.2 Recommendations Te recommendations provided in this Section are appropriate for implementation in all aquatic natural communities. In addition to these recommendations, priorities that should be implemented in the communities described in Sections 4.2.3 through 4.2.14 are specifc to those systems. Actions specifc to the river basins that contain these types of aquatic communities are provided in Section 4.5 of this chapter. Surveys . Distributional and status surveys are needed for aquatic snails, crayfsh, mussels, and fsh (in order of general need). • Conduct stream surveys adjacent to areas poised for development (edge of urban expansion) to establish baseline populations and identify problems before development expands. • Work cooperatively with partners to collect occurrence and abundance data on macro- benthic species. • Conduct surveys to detect presence and collect life-history and abundance data for freshwater snails and crayfshes, as there is limited information available on these species. Monitoring. Monitoring of aquatic taxa is critical to assessing species and ecosystem health and gauging the resilience of organisms to a changing climate. Tese monitoring eforts will inform future decisions on how to manage aquatic species. Long-term moni- toring is needed to identify population trends and to assess performance of conservation actions. Monitoring plans should be coordinated with other existing monitoring programs where feasible. • Monitor aquatic taxa to assess species and ecosystem health and to gauge resiliency of organisms to a changing climate. • Develop long-term monitoring strategies to document population trends, from which conservation strategies can be specifcally designed to target those species which are experiencing declines.
• Monitor population trends to determine if species are adapting to changing habitats and apply what is learned to future management decisions (Bakke 2008) .
• Monitor aquatic nonnative invasive species, analyze population trends, and assess their efect on native priority species populations.
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