We investigated three small streams in the New Territories of Hong Kong, China. In each stream, we compared the benthic macroinvertebrate fauna of one site immediately upstream of an area of agricultural land (market gardening) with a second site immediately downstream. Each pair of sites was < 300 m apart. Samples were taken at the end of the dry season (March 2000) and again (April 2000) just after heavy rainfall had caused runoff from the fields. The total number of taxa at the downstream sites was the same as that in the upstream sites in March. In April, the total taxon richness was lower at the downstream localities although this difference was statistically significant in only one stream. The acute toxic effect of runoff became clearer when focusing on the group of sensitive benthic fauna. The grouping was done by ranking the relatively physiological tolerance to organotoxins following the relevant literature (Bull. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 67 (2001) 360). All streams showed a significant downstream decrease in the number of sensitive taxa in April, while in two of three streams the number of relatively tolerant taxa increased. Ordination (by n-MDS) confirmed this pattern. It revealed a marked temporal trend in all streams resulting from a decrease of sensitive taxa downstream that was not apparent at the upstream sites. The size of the observed effects varied among streams, and may have reflected differences in the composition of the agricultural runoff.