Increasing urbanization has a profound effect on ecosystems worldwide, and the biota found in downstream freshwater systems are no exception. Functional traits are an increasingly popular lens through which to study freshwater macroinvertebrates, as they allow for the potential effects an organism may have on an environment to be clearly shown. Here, nine functional traits (voltinism, dispersal, drift, respiration, rheophily, size, thermal tolerance, habit, and functional feeding group) were used to characterize freshwater insects sampled at over 300 sites by the Maryland Biological Stream Survey (USA). Community weighted means of these traits were calculated for each site, and analyzed as a function of impervious surface cover drainage. My goal was to address 1. if increasing urbanization causes significant shifts in the community weighted mean traits of freshwater macroinvertebrates in Maryland and, if present, 2. what these shifts show about the urbanizing ecosystem.
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