Kushog Lake Biological Monitoring
Lake Fact Sheet
Created By: Emily McDonald & Caitlyn Bondy Trent University 2015. Community Based Educa?on Project carried out
through U-‐Links.
The Importance of Monitoring Benthic Macro Invertebrates
What are Benthic Macro Invertebrates? Benthic invertebrates are a common and diverse group of organisms, such that changes in their diversity and abundance can be tracked through both space and ?me. Aqua?c invertebrates (e.g. worms, mollusks, insect, crustaceans, and mites) are all common indicators used in biological-‐monitoring programs.
Benthic invertebrates are used as water quality indicators for rivers, streams and lake health, through an analysis of their community structure. They can tolerate specific environmental condi?ons, and some are more or less sensi?ve to disturbances such as pollu?on and habitat altera?on.
Indicator What it tells us # of taxa collected
(Richness) The # of taxa (i.e. types of organisms) is a measure of biological diversity or richness. Richness increases with increasing habitat diversity. A healthy community will be reflected by a greater number of taxa.
% of collec?on made up of mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, and caddisflies
(% EPT)
Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies) are very sensi?ve to pollu?on and habitat altera?on.
% of collec?on made-‐up of midges (% Chironomidae)
Midges are tolerant of pollu?on and habitat changes so their dominance indicates water quality problems.
% of collected animals that are predators (% Predators)
Extreme fluctua?ons in the balance of predators and prey signify that the ecosystem is sick.
% of collected animals that are adapted to feeding on coarse plant maVer
(% Shredders)
Shredders are a group of plant eaters adapted to breaking down leaves, wood, and other plant maVer that originates on land but gets transported into water. Such animals should be abundant if there is a good connec?on between a lake and its watershed.
% of collected animals that are adapted to feeding by collec?ng small pieces of organic
maVer (% collector/gatherers)
Collectors-‐gatherers feed on small pieces of organic maVer that arise from the processing ac?vi?es of shredders. Their presence indicates a good popula?on of shredders. They play a vital role in energy cycling.
Organic Pollu?on Score (Hilsenhoff Index Value)
The Hilsenhoff index combines informa?on about the abundances of different types of animals collected at a site with informa?on about those animals’ sensi?vi?es to various contamina?ons and sources of nutrients.
Indices used to summarize lake health with regard to aqua=c invertebrates sampled within Kushog Lake
Provided by the Muskoka Water Web : Benthic Macro invertebrate Monitoring
Depic9ons of the EPT Invertebrate:
Ephemeroptera Mayflies
Plecoptera Stoneflies
Trichoptera Caddisflies
Informa?on provided by: MuskokaWaterWeb.ca – Biological Monitoring Data Benthic images retrieved from General Entomology -‐ hVp://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/index.html
Ontario Benthic Biomonitoring Network: Protocol Manual Data provided by Fleming College
Monitoring on Kushog Lake
Recommenda9ons for Kushog Lake Benthic Monitoring Suggested by Muskoka Water Web
ü Richness in biodiversity should be high. ü % EPT will decrease and % Chironomids will increase over ?me with water quality
impairment. ü % Predators should be less than the other types of benthos and this percentage should
remain the same rela?vely constant over ?me. ü The Hilsenoff index value should be rela?vely low as lower values indicates healthier water. ü Sampling in the Spring rather than Fall is strongly recommended for comparison with other
basins and reference indices
On Kushog Lake, the approach to benthic sampling has been to survey lake inflows using the Rapid Bioassessment Protocol as described by the Ontario Benthos Biomonitoring Network (OBBN). This is executed by comparing benthic communi?es, at test sites where biological condi?ons are in ques?on, to that of mul?ple – minimally impacted reference sites. From various assessments conducted by Fleming College, it can be concluded that the water quality for the inflows into Kushog lake is generally good. There are minor indica?ons which suggest that organic pollu?on is present; however, a reliable comparison between test sites could demonstrate that this is a normal occurrence.
Margaret Creek North Basin (less developed)
Harrison Creek Middle Basin (more developed)
Legend of Invertebrate Taxon
11%
10%
24% 40%
6%
4% 5%
12%
5%
22%
31%
0%
25%
5%
Oligochaeta (Segmented Worms) Hydracarina (Water Mites) Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) Chironomidae (Midges) Gastropoda (Snails) Trichoptera (Caddisflies) Amphipoda (Scuds)
Comparison of benthic communi9es for varied creek inflows to Kushog Lake Various stream inflows to Kushog Lake were sampled in the Fall months (2014) by students at Fleming College in order to characterize the benthic invertebrates present. The rela?ve abundance of species (%) is compared for two streams in the pie charts below. Margaret Creek is situated on the north end of Kushog lake where the shoreline and catchment are less developed or more natural. Harrison Creek is situated in the middle basin, which has significantly more land use development. By doing this analysis, it can be determined whether or not urban development has made an impact on the benthic communi?es within each of the stream inflows. The data show that Margaret creek has higher Chironomidae and Ephemeroptera popula?ons, while Harrison Creek has a higher Trichoptera popula?on. In general, both inflows have fairly similar abundances for the remaining species listed.
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