Each taxon's mean density (individuals per m 2 ), coloured EPT (mayflies / stoneflies / caddisflies, the clean-water groups) vs other .
Density is a within-site standardized index, not a population . Compare within a site, within a habitat and sampler type. The share of samples a taxon shows up on (the Taxa Board's other axis) is the steadier read.
Written from this site's data.
The EPT pulse
The clean-water signal over time: each bout's EPT share and density, with habitat and sampler type carried so you can read what is biology and what is method. Bouts flagged for low counts or mixed methods are greyed.
Showing this site onlyThe line tracks each collection bout's %EPT (share of individuals that are mayflies, stoneflies, or caddisflies, the pollution-sensitive groups). The bars are density (individuals per m 2 ). Marker shape = habitat ; colour = sampler type .
Greyed bouts are flagged (low count, or a mix of habitats / samplers) so they read as less comparable, not wrong. Comparisons are valid within a habitat and sampler type ; a change can reflect which habitat was sampled, not the water.
Each bout's mean density (individuals per m 2 ). Heavy-tailed across bouts, so read direction, not the exact value.
Chao1 is an asymptotic, bias-corrected minimum estimate of richness (Chao 1984). Benthic sampling misses rare taxa, so the true total is higher than what is found. Suppressed where the count is too small to estimate honestly.
Every taxon on one board
Each dot is a
taxon
, placed by its
mean density
(individuals per m
2
, log scale) and its
ubiquity
(% of samples it shows up on).
Tap a dot
to pin its card; open any taxon's full profile.
Taxa Board
Each dot is a taxon , placed by its mean density (individuals per m 2 , log scale) and its ubiquity (% of samples it shows up on).
Tap a dot to pin its card; open any taxon's full profile.
Each dot is a taxon, how dense × how widespread. EPT (clean-water) taxa are teal. Tap to pin a card.
Showing this site onlyTop-right = dense and everywhere; bottom-right = locally dense specialist; top-left = thinly everywhere. The teal diamond is the taxon you're viewing. Colour = EPT vs other.
Diversity and composition
Rarefied richness and common-taxa diversity per bout (suppressed where the count is too small to standardize), and the composition stack: who makes up the community.
Showing this site onlyRarefied richness (Hurlbert 1971) is taxon richness standardized to a common 100 individuals, so a bout with more individuals doesn't look richer just for being bigger. Hill q1 is the effective number of common taxa.
Bouts under 100 individuals or 3 samples are suppressed, not shown with false precision.
Each bout's share of EPT / Chironomidae (midges) / Oligochaeta (worms) / other, drawn as a filled band over the bouts in order. Midge- and worm-heavy assemblages are often (not always) the more tolerant ones.
A surrogate, not a tolerance score. There is no calibrated index here.
One protocol, 34 aquatic sites, a continent of waters
Each dot is a NEON aquatic site, placed by a geographic gradient against its community. Tap a dot to pin its card or jump to that site.
All 34 NEON aquatic sites, not just this oneEach dot is a site; size = survey effort (bouts); colour = water type ( stream / river / lake ); the teal diamond is the site you're viewing.
This is space-for-time , 34 different places observed at once, not one place changing, so it's correlational and confounded by water type and habitat. The density index is within-site, so compare sites by direction, not by who has the higher raw number (it uses a log axis).
The sampled reach
One sampling reach, shown to scale. NEON returns to the same spot each bout — a single marker is the finding, not missing data. Tap it for habitat, sampler, counts, and a NEON-portal link; where several named stations exist they show separately, sized by density.
Showing this site onlySearch the network
Two ways to query all 34 NEON aquatic sites at once, from the bundled index (no download, instant). Find a taxon to see every site it turns up at, or set a threshold to list the sites that clear it. Jump straight to any site from the results.
All 34 NEON aquatic sitesPick any macroinvertebrate taxon in the network. The table lists every site it was found at, with that site's mean density for the taxon (individuals per m 2 ) and how widespread it is there ( ubiquity , the share of samples it shows up on).
Density is a within-site index, not an absolute ranking . A higher number at one site does not mean more bugs in nature, it means a denser sampled assemblage. Compare direction, not raw value.
Set a minimum on a community metric and list the sites that meet it. EPT richness is the number of mayfly / stonefly / caddisfly taxa found (the clean-water groups). %EPT is the share of all individuals that are EPT.
These are space-for-time comparisons across different waters, confounded by water type and habitat. Lakes are naturally EPT-poor, so a low EPT site is not impaired.