Summer benthos in newly flooded areas of Beaver Reservoir during the second and third years of filling 1965-1966

Multiple-plate samplers were used to obtain indexes to benthos production in areas ofrecently flooded herbaceous vegetation, timber, and cleared areas of Beaver Reservoir duringJune-September 1965 and 1966. Benthos accumulation on samplers was highest in floodedherbaceous vegetation during the early summer each year. A strong seasonal decline wasnoted. Chironomids, the numerical benthic dominants on plate samplers throughout the study,were most numerous during the early summer each year. Considerable selection was indicatedwith plate samplers. Emergence traps indicated specimens of Glyptotendipes lobiferus and G.meridionalis to be dominant chironomid forms during the summer of 1965. During 1966, thesespecies decreased in abundance while Polypedilum digitifer and several undetermined species ofTanytarsini increased. Changes in the abundance of these chironomids coincided with aconspicuous increase in the rate of shoreline erosion and redisposition