Invertebrate Biodiversity

The macroinvertebrates graph (figure 2) represents the diversity of species inhabiting the Baldwin Swamp. In 2009 the Baldwin swamp was flourishing with a large diversity of species. A total of 33 macroinvertebrates, 8 species were recorded. At this time the baldwin swamp was healthy, abundant in life and the ecosystem and food webs were unaffected by the floods. Whereas 3 weeks after the floods swept through there were little to no range of species of macroinvertebrates. There were a recorded amount of 2 Damselfly Nymph and 1 waterboat man. A theory to why these two

If there are differences in the amount and type of vegetation from seashore to further inland.

In this lab, we studied the health and response of a protist community in an environmental change. The objective of this lab was to study and learn about how variables, such as a more acidic environment, impact the community in a habitat. Furthermore, it was also to learn about how diversity is quantified. To test this, we added protist communities to habitats of different pH levels, from 7 to 4, and let them live there for a week. We then studied the results and investigated which protists lived better in which environments. We discovered that at a pH of 7, the neutral pH of spring water, protists were able to live. As the pH was decreased, however, protists began to die off and could not survive in such acidic conditions. We also noticed that the lower the pH, the lower the diversity because fewer types of protists could survive. We can use this information to see how acidic conditions in nature such as those caused by acid rain can affect communities. We now know that an acidic environment can be extremely harmful to a community and so we should be more cautious of acid rain. If acidic conditions are bad for protists, it is quite possible that they are unfavorable for humans as well.

The purpose of this experiment is to observe secondary succession at Umass Dartmouth and test the prediction that diversity increases through ecological succession. Students went outside to the lawn underneath the wind mill on campus. 3 transect sites were located by the instructor. Students predicted the species and percent cover of each species on each trail site. Bar charts were made to compare the number of species in each transect. Pi-charts were made to compare the percent coverage of species in each transect.

The aim of our excursion to Hastings Point, New South Wales was to study the biodiversity and ecology and to see how these organisms behave in their natural habitat and surroundings. There will also be information collected about a variety of different organisms as well as population counts and observe how they have adapted to the species surrounding environment. The excursion will also be an opportunity to gather information on

Through our research we aimed to determine if there were any differences in water quality of both the north and south forks of Strawberry Creek. As time progresses and the environment changes it is important to keep track of how certain species are being impacted by these features, and how they cope with change. We hypothesized that due to the lack of pollution, the south fork will promote a greater diversity of macroinvertebrates. This was due to the fact that there was less runoff and trash that could be introduced to the water in the south fork, than there was in the north fork. We gathered data by analyzing the different organisms living in both forks. We collected a total of fifty vials composed of five organisms from each fork, and inspected them under microscopic view. After gathering data and identifying the different kinds of organisms living in the different forks we assessed whether the organisms from the samples could live in high or low resolution water. We also took a t-test to assess the probability of these differences being due to relevant factors or by chance. Our major findings suggest that organisms in the south fork showed a higher demand to living in cleaner water indicating that our hypothesis was correct.

The Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network was created to assess the quality of aquatic environments and ecosystems using benthos organisms as biomarkers (Ontario Ministry of the Environment, 2007). Exclusively used in Ontario, this biomonitoring program assesses ecological function and condition of streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands across the province (The Dorset Environmental Science Centre, 2017). The OBBN protocol is ideal for assessing water quality because of the use of aquatic macroinvertebrates (Borisko, et al. 2007). Since macroinvertebrates are easy and inexpensive to collect, determining water quality can be conducted continuously over the course of the year, across many locations (Borisko, et al. 2007; Ontario Ministry of the

diversity is low because only one area was sampled so this could account for the species being the same. If

At this station, we had to go into the creek, pick out rocks, and observe and identify the animal life living on that rock. Animals that live in the water need dissolved oxygen so they can breathe under the water. The more turbulent the water is, the more dissolved oxygen can be found in it. The amount of dissolved oxygen in a body of water will determine the type and number of macro-invertebrates that may live there. There are three groups of animals that you could find in the Conodoguinet Creek. Group one is called stream insects and crustaceans. These are pollution sensitive organisms, which means they cannot exist in polluted waters. Group one organisms are only found in good quality water. Some examples of these organisms are mayflies, gilled snails, water penny, or a stonefly(shown in figure 8.) The next group is the organisms that are somewhat pollution tolerant, which means they can be found in good or fair quality water. Crayfish, dragonflies, and clams are all examples of group two organisms (shown in figures 3, 6, and 9.) Group three organisms are pollution tolerant organisms. This means they can be found in any quality water. Some examples of group three organisms are pouch snails, pond snails, orb snails, and leeches. When I conducted this experiment, I found seven group one organisms, seven group two organisms, and five group three organisms. Macroinvertebrate is another word for organism.

The sparrow had a total of one species with a relative abundance of 0.0526. The earthworm had a total of six species with a relative abundance of 0.3158. The red-headed woodpecker had a total of one species with a relative abundance of 0.0526. The bigger brown spider had a total of one species with a relative abundance of 0.0526 (see Figure 1). The total number of species in the wooded area was nineteen with the species evenness of 0.7823. It also had a Shannon diversity index of 1.6266 and species richness of eight (see Table 1). The twelve different species at the water’s edge site are turtle, buzzard, deer, frog, beaver, tiny brown spider, small black bird, small yellow and brown stripes spider, dark with brown stripes spider, water spider, tibellus spider, and dog. The turtle had a total of five species with a relative abundance of 0.1515. The buzzard had a total of three species with a relative abundance of 0.0909. The deer had a total of one species with a relative abundance of 0.0303. The frog had a total of one species with a relative abundance of 0.0303. The beaver had a total of two species with a relative abundance of 0.0606. The tiny brown spider had a total of one species with a relative

The diversity, and population of macroinvertbrates will be lower in Enoggera Creek than Cedar Creek. As gradient profiles with high steepness result in high water flow rate, and riffle zones that produce variables that are typically within in the tolerance range of more invertebrates (eg. high dissolved oxygen, temperature, and low turbidity) and allow the transport of food particles. While due to the shallower gradient of Enoggera Creek, it can be assumed that there is a lower water flow rate. This results in a comparatively lower dissolved oxygen level, higher temperature, higher tubidity (especially in terms of pollution), and possibly less food sources (due to less species colonisation in these areas) - which is optimal for fewer species

For instance, the Itaipu Reservoir on the Paraná River in South America is a man-made cistern that utilizes hydropower for the area in the form of dams and reservoirs. When the reservoir inundated the Guaira Falls which served as an ecological filter separating most species, fish that had lived in the lower part of the Paraná River gained access to the upper Paraná River (Vitule, 2012). In order to quantify homogenization, Vitule employed Jaccard’s coefficient which measures similarities between species in the same community. From the data, he concluded that homogenization occurred in the area not by the elimination of threatened species but by the unidirectional movement of fish. More than half of the species in the upper Paraná Basin were distributed from the lower Paraná Basin after the reservoir flooded. Thus, homogenization and consequent loss of biodiversity of the Itaipu area was directly influenced by anthropogenic

The class ran a total of three types of tests. The first one we did were the biological tests, which examined the amount of benthic macroinvertebrates. One test, the average percent EPT, show that the percentage of caddisfly, mayfly, and stonefly families has remained fairly stable, changing slightly from 20% to 21.4% during the years 2012 and 2017. Another test we conducted was for the amount of species families in

4. Dried leaves were retrieved and weighed. The total tissue loss from initial weight before submersion until now was recorded. Class inputs data and a class mean and standard deviation of tissue loss/ day was gathered for both wetlands for each species

The patterns of biological diversity in rivers and streams among taxa vary on a spatial and temporal scale (Ligeiro et al. 2010; McGarvey and Terra 2015). Variations in stream ecology can be contributed to water quality, habitat, and history of disturbance (Lingeiro et al. 2010). Creeks and streams feed into rivers and other larger bodies of water, which provide food, water, and other commercial and recreational services as well as a home to an array of plants and animals which rely on clean water. The health of these smaller bodies of water can act as indicators for the health of the larger watershed.