Hot Springs National Park (HOSP), located in the Ouachita Mountains Ecoregion of Arkansas, was established to preserve the geothermal springs and conserve this water resource for public use. The park is 22.5 km2 and, in addition to the hot springs, contains portions of three streams: Gulpha Creek (3.1 km), Bull Bayou (1.9 km), and Whittington Creek (2.3 km). Land use adjacent to the park is primarily urban, with the park surrounding the north end of the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Urbanization can have a negative impact on the quality of surface water and adversely affect fish populations through habitat loss and fragmentation, sedimentation, and nonpoint source water pollution. In June 2009, the Heartland Inventory and Monitoring Network (HTLN) of the National Park Service (NPS) began monitoring water quality and fish communities in Gulpha Creek and Bull Bayou to assess the integrity of these surface water resources. Whittington Creek, an intermittent stream, was not monitored.

George Washington Carver National Monument (GWCA), located in the Ozark Highlands of southwest Missouri, was established to interpret the historic and cultural resources related to the birthplace, childhood, and achievements of George Washington Carver.

Aquatic invertebrates are an important biomonitoring tool for understanding and detecting changes in ecosystem integrity over time. Therefore, the monitoring objectives of this protocol as described by DeBacker et al. (2005) are: 1) Determine the status and trends of invertebrate species diversity, abundance, and community metrics. 2) Relate invertebrate community to overall water quality through quantification of metrics related to species richness, abundance, diversity, and region-specific multi-metric indices as indicators of water quality and habitat condition.