A comparison of genetically and morphometrically identified macroinvertebrate community index scores with implications for aquatic life use attainment.

Measures of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities are often used to characterize water quality and indicate whether waterbodies are meeting management expectations. The accuracy of these measures depends on the skill and experience of the person identifying the macroinvertebrates, and obtaining these measures can be relatively expensive due to the time necessary for identification. Utilizing genetic identification of macroinvertebrate taxa has the potential to reduce the time of sample processing, identify a greater number of taxa, and increase the resolution of identification.