This study was conducted to evaluate the seasonal changes of benthic macroinvertebrate communities in a reference stream as well as the effects of physicochemical environmental factors on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in a study stream. Benthic macroinvertebrates were sampled seasonally at five different sampling sites with five replicates at Changjeon stream in Mountain Gariwang from spring to winter in 2011. Physicochemical environmental factors (e.g., discharge, width, substrate, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, pH and water temperature) were measured at each sampling sites. Water quality factors such as conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH were similar among the sampling sites, whereas hydrological factors including discharge and width tended to be higher from upstream to downstream. In substrate composition, the relative ratio of large substrate such as cobbles was higher in summer season. In macroinvertebrate samples, 79 species with 2 phylum, 5 order and 9 family were identified during the sampling periods. Gammarus sp. was higher in upstream (sites 1 and 2), whereas Chironomidae spp. tended to be higher in downstream. In functional feeding groups, shredder was higher in upstream, whereas predator and collector-gatherer were higher in downstream. The ratios of Gammarus sp. and Plecopetera were higher in summer. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling was applied to figure out the differences of macroinvertebrate communities during the survey periods, representing the seasonal changes as well as hydrological gradients.

Benthic macro invertebrate communities were collected at six different sampling sites in the Musucheon stream in Korea from July 2006 to July 2007, and ecological exergy values were calculated based on five different functional feeding groups (collector-g