STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:
How can macroinvertabrates be used to determine water
quality in the West Branch of the Susquehanna River Basin? How big are they?
There were trees along the bank and a bridge father down the stream. Using macroinvertabrates
to determine the water quality by how sensitive they are to pollution. By doing this,
macroinvertarates are put in different group’s ether sensitive, somewhat sensitive, or not
sensitive at all. Using this determine water quality. A macroinvertebrate is a tiny insect that lives
among the watersheds, such as the Erie, the Ohio, the Susquehanna, the Genesee, the Potomac,
and the Susquehanna.
HYPOTHESIS: Based on the information gathered so far the water quality for this experiment
will be fair.
MATERIALS:
1) Shoulder length gloves ( one pair)
2) Waders (two pair)
3) Buckets (two)
4) Hand lens, magnifying glass, or field microscope
5) Tweezers, eyedropper, spoons
6) Large dishpans (three)
7) Plastic sorting tubes, or ice trays
8) Taxonomic key to aquatic organisms
9) Calculator
10) Kick net- a fine mesh (500 m) nylon net approximately 1 meter square with 3-foot long
supporting pole on each side is recommended.
11) Aquarium nets for additional habitat sampling
12) Large white trash bag
PROCEDDURE:
When doing a stream study, the following procedure must be completed. In order for the experiment to
be accurate gathering three stream samples is necessary. To collect the samples, first choose the appropriate sight. To do this
inshore the area could possibly have macroinvertabrates and a moving current. In order to approach the sight, approach it from
downstream moving slowly in the water making shore not to disturb anything. Next take the net and position it at a 45 degree
angle, two people to hold the net in both sides of the tube, making shore it is tight up agents the sub straight. Next, the kickers
need to stand in front of the net, these two group member need to move their feet slowly by the net to disturb the sub straight.
When this is completed, remove the net with a scoping motion, and bring it back to shore, laying it down flat. Two or three other
group members need to take the dish pans and fill them with stream water. Next with tweezers, sort through the
macroinvertabrates sorting them in different dishpans of stream water. Lastly clean the net by flushing it out with stream water.
Make sure to get the temperature of the water, and a sample to determine what type of water it is. (Weather it is acidic or nonacidic). The last and final step to this experiment is to fill out a stream assessment, and communicate the results.
RESULTS (data):
The date was October 12, 2010, the time 9:50 a.m. The air temperature was 18 degrees calicos. The
water temperature, 14 degrees calculus, the ph. of the water was 6.5 partly acidic. The river is very clear surrounded by plant and
human life. It was a partly sunny day. Participants for this experiment included eighteen people. Macroinvertabrates in this
experiment consisted of mostly Caddis Fly Larva. (300) Based on the water, the stream is used for drinking water.
POLKYTION TOLERACE INDEX (PYI)
Relative abundance (RA) WEIGHT FACTOR R= (1-9) C= (10-99) D=(100 OR MORE)
GROUP 1
TAXA
RA GROUP 2
TAXA
Dobson fly larva
5R
Fishily larva
Net winged midges
Club tails (
dragonfly)
Stone fly nymph
Water snip flies
Caddis fly larva
Crane fly larva
Other mayfly
nymph
Other:
RA GROUP 3
TAXA
Alderfly
Primitive minnow
mayflies
Small square gills
Snails
True midgets
Water penny larva
Other beetle larva
Damselfly Nymph
Dragon fly nymph
Other true flies
300R Black fly Larva
Cry fish
Scuds
9R
2R
Other:
Mayfly
RA
Aquatic sow bug
Aquatic worm
Leech
Moth flies
Retailed maggot
1R
Other:
Finger nail clam
CALCULATING INDEX VALUE
GROUP 1
Group 2
GROUP 3
( SENSITIVE
( somewhat sensitive)
( TOLERANT)
2
( # of Rs) * 5.0 =
10
2
( # of Rs * 3.2)
6.4 0
( # of Rs * 1.2)
0
0
(# of Cs) * 5.6 =
0
0
( # of Cs * 3.4)
0
0
(# of Cs * 1.1)
0
1
(# of Ds )* 5.3
5.3
0
( # of Ds* 3.0)
0
0
(# of Ds * 1.0)
0
Total:
15.3
Total:
6.4
Total:
Index Value group
2
Index value group 1
3
15.3
+
6.
Index Value
Group
+
Index Value for
Site
0
=
21.7
WATER QUALITY RATING
SITE
SCORE
RATING
0
>40
Good
21.7
20-40
Fair
0
<20
Poor
number of macroinvertabrates
colected in the sesquahanna
300
200
100
0
caddis fly dobson
flt
mayfly
cry fish
finger
nail clam
CONCLUSION: Based on the information gathered, the water quality will be fair. This
statement is true because, after doing all of the math and looking at the observations, the total
water quality rating was 21.7, fits in the fair category.
Final summary:
The highest rating for the macroinvertibarates was the cadis fly larva
with 300 r. The lowest macroinvertabrates count was the finger nail clam, 1r. Based on the
sensitivities, the water rating for the river was concluded to be fair. One thing I learned from this
experiment is that there are so many living things in the water that I did not know about before.
This goes in with the real world because we just think of the basics- fish, snails, and regular
worms- but if you do your studies you will find that more living organisms can be in your local
water shed. Possible errors in this experiment were simple and can be easily fixed. The kickers
could have stayed out in the stream a little longer to get a better variety of macroinvertabrates
The wrong macroinvertabrates, could have been verified or stuck in the wrong container when
sorting them. Overall experiment went well. Possible errors in this experiment could have
occurred by someone misidentifying the macroinvertabrates, getting confused with the water
quality or not knowing or understanding the macroinvertabrates.