Stream Monitoring

1
Stream Monitoring
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Visual survey

• Geological Parameters
• Watershed The terrestrial region that drains
  into a body of water. As water flows toward the
  stream, it will pick up as much as it can in its
  path and deposit it into the stream.
• Unhealthy watersheds include agriculture,
  development, industries, etc.

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Floodplain

• A floodplain is the low-lying land subject to
  recurrent flooding that is situated next to
  rivers and streams
• You do not want to build your house in a
  floodplain, but unfortunately, this is not always
  an obvious area!!!!

4
Riparian Zone

• According to the Stream Team monitoring project,
  the riparian zone is the area 100 on either side
  of the stream
• Trees are important riparian cover because they
  provide stabilization of the stream bank and
  shade for the water
• They also drop their leaves into the stream which
  provides an important food source and substrate
  for habitat

5
Stream Bed

• This is the area where the water flows in a
  stream
• Various substrate sizes are important for the
  life of the stream because different organisms
  require different sized substrates in order to
  survive
• This is also where the majority of algae growth
  is found in a stream

6
Embeddedness

• The proportion of the substrate that is embedded.
• This is important to note often
• Local development can greatly impact embeddedness
  (runoff of silt)
• Why does it matter how much the substrate is
  embedded?

7
Biological Monitoring

• Biological community in a stream is indicative of
  the water quality of that stream
• We primarily sampled for macroinvertebrates
  (worms and bugs you can see with your naked eyes)

8
Categories of Life

• Organisms that live in the water vary in their
  sensitivity to pollution
• Pollution in this sense refers to DO (dissolved
  oxygen) levels
• The 3 categories are Sensitive, Somewhat
  sensitive, and tolerant
• In good water, you would expect to find all 3!
• In poor water, you would only expect to find
  tolerant

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Chemical Parameters

• Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
• Increases
• Riffles
• Cold temperatures (shade good)
• Photosynthesis
• Decreases
• Stagnant water
• Warm temperatures (holds less gas)
• Decomposition (N P increase algae which
  increases total life in the stream which
  eventually ends up with more dead stuff, more
  decomposition less DO)

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O2 Saturation

• The amount of Oxygen that can be dissolved in
  water is dependant on temperature.
• Therefore to get a numerical value for DO is
  relative, depending on water temperature.
• More significant to look at O2 Saturation

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Unnatural Sources of Thermal Pollution

• Power plants
• Water runoff heated by urban surfaces
• Reduction of vegetation
• Water turbidity caused by erosion

12
Water Chemistry

• Nitrates phosphates
• from animals wastes and fertilizer runoff.
  Increases algae growth
• Ammonia
• animal wastes, toxic, increases when animal
  density becomes too great for the amount of water
• pH- Rain water has a pH of about 5.5. It is
  naturally higher than neutral in this area due to
  limestone dissolved in water.
• Important because the life in an aquatic system
  is sensitive to pH levels

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Other water quality assessments, ctd.

• Turbidity A measurement of water clarity.
• Clear water is necessary for algae growth on the
  substrate
• Increases water temperature (particles hold heat)
• Decreases habitat for aquatic life
• Conductivity A crude measurement of ions in the
  water (i.e. dissolved stuff)
• E.g. sulfates, phosphates, sodium, magnesium,
  calcium, and iron
• Indirect measurement of water pollution

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Data Analysis

• Water Quality Index
• Simpson Index of Diversity
• Life of the Stream
• O2 Saturation Exercise

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Water Quality Index

• A measurement of Species Richness
• Species richness presence/absence of species or
  how many different species present in a community
• Fill out table on page 150 and determine rating.

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Simpson Diversity Index

• Takes into account which species are present AND
  their relative abundance.
• D 1/S p2i
• Determine Diversity of your data set
  (macroinvertebrates) and compare that to a data
  set given to you in class from James River

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Life of the Stream (from your homework)

• Which organisms fall under the category of
  primary producers in a stream?
• Which organisms fall under the category of
  primary consumers?
• Secondary consumers?
• Why do we need all this life?

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O2 Saturation

• How to determine- use chart of table, line up the
  values of temperature and DO and the scale in the
  middle notes O2 Saturation
• Practice!

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Homework

• Review Questions on page 155 (10 pts)
• 10 point quiz at the beginning of lab next week!