Stochastic model for recovery prediction of macroinvertebrates following a pulse-disturbance in river

A case study was done in 70 communities in Tokyo using the indexes of both RI and ETL. Recovery processes were simulated by administering a virtual pulse stressor to decrease the total biomass to 8%. As a result, 80% among the total number of communities performed a higher resilience within 3 years of the ETL. RI revealed that geographically neighboring community possesses extra-high resilience. Multiple regression analysis also proved that ETL was significantly explained by five environmental variables: specific conductivity, width of low-water channels, catchment area, suspended solid and stream order. As the results implied, macroinvertebrate community can recover quickly in total biomass when supplied from non-damaged upstream reaches. The case study also demonstrated the high potentialities of RI and the ETL for impact assessments in the river ecosystems.