Developing environmental flow targets for benthic macroinvertebrates in large rivers using hydraulic habitat associations and taxa thresholds

•Identification of indicator genera for flow provides important ecological information for large river benthic macroinvertebrate assemblages.•Taxa Indicator Threshold Analysis was applied on benthic macroinvertebrate monitoring data in a large river in Eastern Canada•Flow velocity was strongly associated with the distribution and relative abundance of benthic macroinvertebrates.•Hydraulic-habitat thresholds and taxa associations were linked to alternative flow scenarios.