Macroinvertebrates are animals that you can see with the naked eye that don't have backbones. Some examples include insects, crustaceans, worms, snails, and clams. So benthic macroinvertebrates live in and on the bottom of the streambed and other substrates such as logs and plants in the stream channel. King County monitors stream health by collecting samples of benthic macroinvertebrates from selected streams.
Scientists use a score-card system to rank the health of the streams.
The scores are based on what type of bugs are living in the stream and the number of different kinds of stream bugs present. By using this scoring system, we can compare very different streams to each other and rank their ecological health. In this web site you can find general information about benthic macroinvertebrates, why they are important in streams, how King County uses them as stream health indicators , and information on county streams that are being monitored . For questions about information on this page, please contact Kate O'Laughlin , Ecologist. By visiting this and other King County web pages, you expressly agree to be bound by terms and conditions of the site.