Have stream invertebrate communities of Macquarie Island changed over 15 years and are they likely to respond to climate changes or other environmental factors?

Project aim

This project will assess the extent of changes to the freshwater stream invertebrate communities of Macquarie Island since they were last sampled 15 years ago. It will also assess whether spatial variation in these stream communities is related to changes in water temperature, it will experimentally examine the temperature tolerance of these freshwater taxa and will provide a long-term dataset to assess future changes, including those resulting from climate change. The use of stream macroinvertebrates as biomonitoring tools to detect impacts from human activities on Macquarie Island and other sub-Antarctic Islands will be examined.