Macroinvertebrates

Macroinvertebrates:

• Macroinvertebrates live in streams and rivers to help indicate the health and biodiversity of the water. The more there are in the river helps us get a better understanding for the current stage of the river. Every water source should have some type of living organism to show how healthy the water may be. The helpful aspect of macroinvertabrates is that some can live in all different types of water when most can only live in clean water.

E-P-T index:

• The E-P-T index is based off of three basic macroinvertebrates, which are ephemeroptera (mayflies), plecoptera (stoneflies), and trichoptera (caddisflies). All three of these macroinvertebrates live in clean water, so when we look for them in the river and there a lot more than usual, than that means there is less pollution. This can be rare for the river, that we tend to not find many, but ones that are pollutant tolerable.

Biodiversity index:

• This is when there are one or two species that dominates a community, leaving it less diverse and harder for a new species to develop. This is a major problem that we face with the river with a certain macroinvertebrate called scud. Scuds are pollutant tolerable and can live in any type of water. We find more scud than anything else in the river, which can show us that the river is most likely to be polluted. We like to find a diverse amount of macroinvertebrates in the river because this shows us how diverse the river can get and that there is less pollution.

Helpful Sites:

• http://extension.usu.edu/waterquality/whats-in-your-water/aquatic_macroinvertebrates
• http://www.cfb.unh.edu/StreamKey/html/index.html