My research project involves the lives of macroinvertebrates and how the richness and abundance of them changes as various stream conditions change. I’ve had some experience in the past kick-netting streams, identifying macros, and teaching elementary school kids about stream health, so I was very excited to get to work in the water to study these critters a little closer.

I collected my data based on two different variables – slow versus fast water flow and big versus small rock size in the stream bed. I began by surveying the stream for potential sites and then collected measurements of depth, width, tree cover, temperature, and pH. I then hucked an orange up stream and timed its travel for 3 meters to estimate velocity. Once I collected the basic info, I began collecting rock measurements within each of my selected sections. I chose ‘small’ rocks to be anything less than 50mm. After some time surveying the stream beds I reasoned that would be a good average size where the rocks transition from big to small. Then came the fun part, using a surber sampler to catch some macros, count, and identify them. The last step of my research was collecting water samples from the bottom of the water column of each section and conducting a dissolved oxygen test on them. Nothing felt more “science-y” than sitting on the stream bank and swirling little potion bottles of stream water mixed with special powder to find dissolved oxygen content.

I started this research with the hypothesis that faster flowing water with smaller rock size will yield the greatest richness and abundance of macroinvertebrates. My reasoning was that turbulent fast flowing water will create more dissolved oxygen for the macros to breath. I also thought that a smaller rock size will create more habitat and small spaces for the macros to sneak into while also trapping more organic matter. I’ll keep you posted on the results of my study once I do some number crunching and make a couple cute looking graphs.