Field References

Biodiversity

Biological monitoring is important because macroinvertebrates are sensitive indicators of an ecosystem's health. They provide a measure of the effect of pollutants rather than just indicate the presence of certain chemicals. Monitors will measure chemical, physical and biological parameters to determine the vigor of a body of water.

Collecting a combination of benthic macroinvertebrates and invertebrates offers more than the chemical snapshot obtained from traditional water quality testing. They are good indicators of water quality because they can:

1. Reveal general water quality over an extended period of time, since they are less mobile then vertebrates;
2. Illustrate the impact of nutrient or organic enrichment and toxic contamination; and
3. Reflect differences in physical habitat conditions.

Water Quality

Testing water quality is an important aspect of determining the health of a system. By looking at the following selected parameters, we can take a "snapshot" of our watershed for that day. Over the long term, trends are established that reflect upon the health of the terrestrial and aquatic environments. Keeping a watchful eye on certain chemical levels and physical characteristics will let you know if the water in your watershed is safe for use by humans.

 

 

 

 

Garbology

Water Pollution is any human-caused contamination of water that reduces its usefulness to living organisms. Included in this field reference is an overview of garbology monitoring procedures and reasons why we consider it an important parameter in testing the quality and health of our watersheds.

Through the use of relative abundance analysis students will be able to categorize and analyze different garbage types and make knowledge based determinations as to the environmental impacts that garbage has on waterway environments.