EcoSpark - Citizens’ Environment Watch

1. EcoSpark - Citizens’ Environment Watch Water Quality Monitoring with Benthic Macroinvertebrates Spring 2009

2. Citizens’ Environment Watch • Mission CEW empowers people to take an active role in protecting and sustaining nature. We give people the tools for education, monitoring and influencing positive change. • Since 1996, CEW has: • Worked with over 6,000 volunteers including over 3,500 youth • Led over 100 environmental monitoring sessions in 10 watersheds across Ontario • Held over 10 multi-stakeholder community forums

3. Our Programs CEW has a diverse set of programs to maximize the impact of our volunteers to protect and sustain nature.

4. Changing Currents • One of CEW’s longest running programs • In over 10 watersheds • Standardized protocols

5. Students in Action! “I signed up because I heard the course would be mostly outside and I thought it would be fun, but it was really much more than that. It gave us the tools to go out and actually change something.” Grade 11 student participant

6. Roles and Responsibilities CEW: • Provide training & equipment • Aid in scheduling and project planning • Help with finding and ‘adopting’ sites • Provide leadership during field study • Data management • Guidance in developing community projects

7. Roles and Responsibilities Teachers: • Deliver in-class components of the program (see CEW’s Teacher & Student Guide) • Determine sample site(s) • Scheduling field study (transportation and permission forms) • Provide CEW with copies of the datasheets • Ensure timely equipment return • Send CEW materials related to your field study (e.g. pictures, comments, action plans, etc.)

8. What are we doing today? • Monitoring: The Foundation (20 mins) • Study Techniques (40 mins) Break (15 mins) • Identification Workshop (45 mins) Lunch (30 mins) • Field Study (1hr & 30 mins) Break (15 mins) • Understanding your Data (15 mins) • Debrief and Overview (15 mins)

9. Why Monitor? • To understand the state of your local environment • Monitoring is a process, or a means to an end • All monitoring needs to be informed by a goal, or a study question Sample Study Questions: • What is the water quality of my local stream? (baseline monitoring) • Is this golf course affecting water quality? (upstream and downstream) • Do these new houses have an impact on water quality? (before and after)

10. Why Monitor? Benefits of monitoring: • Improve understanding within your community • Raise a red flag • Inform stewardship projects • Link to local decision-making process • It’s fun!

11. Wear a belt!

14. Site Selection • Wadable stream close to your school • Enough space to accommodate a large group • Should have 40 metres length of stream • Should be pre-scouted for safety

15. Safety & Equipment • Do not trespass • Make sure there are multiple safe access points to the stream • Be aware of water levels, poisonous plants and adverse weather • Don’t monitoring in deep areas • Bring a cell phone & first aid kit (provided by CEW)

16. What indicators can we use?

17. Benthic Macroinvertebrates Benthic Macroinvertebrates (BMIs) are: • Aquatic • Bottom-dwelling (benthic) • Visible to the naked eye (macro) • Lacking a “backbone” (invertebrate) • Include both adult and immature forms

18. Why Use BMI? • Sedentary mode of life (i.e. narrow ecological range) • Integrate the effects of both long- and short-term environmental impacts (i.e. ecosystem health) • Relatively easy to sample (e.g. D-nets) and identify (i.e. coarse taxonomy) • Are abundant in most streams and are a primary food source to many important fish • Standardized – applied by many different groups (government, conservation authorities, academics)

19. Data Collection: In Brief • Choosing a site and setting up the transects • Data collection and sieving • Datasheet completion • Working with large groups • Sampling options and steps • Filling in Data Sheet 3

20. Choosing a Site • Identifying riffles and pools • Site must be 40 m or greater – mark downstream and upstream limits

21. Setting Up Transects • Measure the wetted width • Determine # transects: • Calculate distance between transects • = site length / (# transects - 1)

22. Example • Stream Width: 4 m • Site Length: 40 m Upstream Limit 10m 10m 10m 10m Downstream Limit Direction of Flow

23. Data Collection and Sieving 1 • Start at downstream limit • Travel along transect (see next slide) • Transfer to next transect Upstream Limit Downstream Limit Direction of Flow

24. D Net

25. Kick sample

27. Data Collection and Sieving 2 • Hold D-net so that flow goes into net • Kick upstream of net ~5cm deep as travel along transect • After 1 or two transects, sieve sample, transfer to sample bucket, continue sampling • Pick-up unembedded rocks and dislodge any attached bugs • MUST collect bugs from ALL transects before subsampling!

28. Data Collection and Sieving 3 • Empty D-net into sieve over waste water bucket • Inspect rocks for bugs (return rocks to stream) • Pour waste water through sieve • Transfer sieved sample to sample bucket (add water) • Scoop sub sample into smaller tray • Identify until you have 100 bugs

29. Datasheet Completion • Datasheet 1: Group info, Riparian data, Stream width, substrate type, overhead cover • Datasheet 2: Site observations, photographs, sketch • Datasheet 3: Bug count

30. Working with large groups • Split students into groups • Give students specific “jobs” • Sample collection • Sieving • Completion of each datasheet • Picking up garbage, etc.

31. Sampling Options • In-field processing and ID with hand lenses • In-class processing and ID with hand lenses or microscopes for a closer look • Preserve the sample and ID in-class/lab (required for first monitoring session - QA/QC) • Take note of your method at the top of Datasheet 3

32. Steps • In your kit, you have… • Sub-sampling using the 125 ml scoop • Swirl the sample, take ONE scoop and put it into your white tray • Scan the tray and pick out bugs • Can’t find any more bugs in your sub-sample? Look again (about 2 min), then dump the remains and get another scoop • Collectively pick out AT LEAST 100 bugs – you MUST finish the last scoop!

33. Steps, cont’d • Options: A) Pick and sort at the same time OR B) Pick all the bugs, then sort • Use the tweezers and pipettes to pick up bugs, the petri dishes and hand lenses to take a closer look and the ice cube tray to sort • TIP: assign different people in your group different tasks: ie picker, sorter, recorder • TIP: use CEW resources to help you ID, sort bugs into similar groups, then narrow it down, remember the major identification techniques

34. Filling in Datasheet #3 • Fancy scientific number recording system: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 . 9 10 11

35. Break

36. Citizens’ Environment WatchBenthic Macroinvertebrate Identification

37. BMI Indicators • The CEW protocol uses a suite of 27 BMI indicators that vary in their tolerance levels to pollution • BMIs include organisms in different developmental stages (e.g. adult and immature forms - larvae and nymphs) • An organism is a larvae or nymph depending on its type of metamorphosis

38. Egg ↓ Nymph (instars) ↓ Adult Egg ↓ Larva ↓ Pupa ↓ Adult Larvae vs. Nymphs Complete Metamorphosis Incomplete Metamorphosis

39. Incomplete metamorphosis • 3 stages: egg/nymph/adult • 12% of insects • Nymphs: resemble adults • Complete metamorphosis • 4 stages: egg/larva/pupa/adult • 88% of insects • Larvae: worm-like, don’t resemble adults Larvae vs. Nymphs

40. BMI Breakdown • Adult BMI: no legs • Larval BMI: no legs • Larval BMI: legs • Nymph BMI: legs • Adult BMI: legs

41. BMI Breakdown • Adult BMI, no legs (7) • Shells: • Clams (Pelecypoda) • Snails (Gastropoda) • Tentacles: • Hydras (Coelenterata) • Flat Body: • Flatworms (Turbellaria) • Leeches (Hirudinea) • Round Body: • Roundworms (Nematoda) • Aquatic Earthworms (Oligochaeta)

42. Gastropoda (Snail) • Size range: 2 - 70 mm • Movement: none (found floating or at bottom of tray) • Colour: grey, brown or black • Hard shell • Spiral shaped • Do not count empty shells • Tolerance Value: 8

43. Pelecypoda (Clam) • Size range: 2 - 250 mm • Movement: none (found at bottom of tray) • Colour: white, yellow, brown, grey, black • Hard shell • Flat, two halves hinged • Do not count empty shells • Tolerance Value: 6

44. Coelenterata (Hydras) • Size range: 2-25 mm long • Movement: sessile • Colour: variable, often clear to whitish • Inconspicuous, tube with tentacles • Asexual reproduction through budding • Tolerance Value: 8

45. Turbellaria (Flatworm) • Size range: 5-30 mm • Movement: creep slowly on bottom • Colour: greyish brown, colourless • Very flat, eyespots on head • Tolerance Level: 8 http://www.microscopyu.com/moviegallery/pondscum/platyhelminthes/dalyellia/

46. Hirudinea (Leech) • Size range: 5-400 mm • Movement: inch along bottom with the aid of suckers at either end of body • Colour: brown, black, green on top/orange on bottom • Segmented body • Often with several pairs of eyes on head • Tolerance Value: 8

47. Nematoda (Roundworms) • Size range: usually <1 cm long • Movement: Rapid, whip-like movements • Colour: frequently clear • Unsegmented, head usually tapered, tail pointed • Tolerance Value: 8

48. Oligochaeta (Aquatic Earthworm) • Size range: 1 to 30 mm • Movement: crawl along bottom of tray • Colour: pinkish, light brown • Similar appearance to earth worm, with bundles of hairs on each segment behind the first • Segmented body with clitellum (swollen, glandular region) • Tolerance Level: 8

49. BMI Breakdown • Larval BMI, no legs (7) • Chubby leathery body: Flies • Horseflies (Tabanidae) • Craneflies (Tipulidae) • Misc. flies (Diptera) • Blackflies (Simuliidae) • Thin smooth segmented body: • No-see-ums (Ceratopogonidae) • Midges (Chironomidae) (parapods) • Large head: • Mosquitos (larvae and pupae)

50. Tabanidae (Horsefly) • Size range: 1.5 - 40 mm • Movement: unknown • Colour: white or cream • pointed at both ends, leathery texture • Segmented, straight or slightly curved • Seven pairs of bumps on abdomen (creeping welts with hooks) • Head retracted into thorax • Tolerance Level: 5