By: Carolina Ruiz, Amy Zvonar, and Jessie Curl
On a warm, humid, and overcast morning in April, the AWW staff and members of the BraveHeart Center for Place and Purpose met at the Parkerson Mill Creek Greenway on Auburn University’s campus ready for an exciting morning of stream biomonitoring. Rain clouds in the distance were no deterrent; the entire group was eager to see what aquatic mysteries could be found in this shaded section of the creek!
To kick-off a morning of outdoor, experiential learning, AWW Director Mona Dominguez engaged the group in a discussion about aquatic life. Stream biomonitoring involves using aquatic macroinvertebrates to assess the health of a waterbody, so understanding aquatic life is essential to the process.
Members of the BCPP are very familiar with the work of AWW because their community volunteers help us prepare training manuals for our bacteriological and water chemistry monitoring certifications.
They have also participated in a stream clean-up and learned about watersheds and water pollution with the AUWRC (BCPP Enviroscape Demo to learn more). These learning experiences ensured they had many ideas about what we would find in the creek, including fish and turtles! Building on this knowledge, Mona was able to introduce the group to aquatic macroinvertebrates and get them excited about finding dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, caddisflies, snails, mayflies and more!
Before getting in the creek with our D-nets and kick net, Mona asked BCPP participants to hypothesize about the health of the creek. Encouraged by Mona to observe the creek, its immediate surroundings, and the areas of campus upstream from the creek, many of the participants guessed that the water in the creek would be a little polluted but generally ok.
Ready with a hypothesis, it was time to collect some critters! AWW staff members Sergio, Carolina, Jess and Sydney entered the stream and began collecting while BCPP participants watched from the bridge overhead.
There are several methods we use to collect aquatic macroinvertebrates. While BCPP participants observed and took photos, AWW staff retrieved a leaf pack and hester-dendy remote sampler they had placed at the site earlier in the year.
The BCPP participants also observed how the D-net was used under the stream bank as Sydney searched for dragonfly nymphs, while Carolina and Sergio picked up rocks and rubbed them to encourage macroinvertebrates towards the kick net.
Back on dry land, stream water and leafy debris were gently poured into white observation trays. With plastic spoons and plastic pipettes ready, participants waited to see movement in the water and collect their first macroinvertebrate!
The entire AWW staff was hoping for a wide range of invertebrates and Parkerson Mill Creek did not disappoint! One of the first critters we found was an incredible Water Scorpion.
From there, BCPP participants and AWW staff found a plethora of invertebrates. Thanks to the careful planning of Carolina, who designed the entire field day event, BCPP participants were able to use macroinvertebrate identification sheets, magnifying viewers, and sorting dishes to identify most of the invertebrates (and a few vertebrates) we collected.
We were able to find damselfly nymphs, aquatic snails, mayflies, caddisflies, blackfly larvae, midges, aquatic worms, and even salamanders!
Even as a few raindrops began to fall, the group braved the rain to discover what all these incredible macroinvertebrates were telling us about the creek!
Sergio and Carolina introduced the aquatic macroinvertebrate biotic index and helped our BCPP participants sorting the macroinvertebrates into groups of organisms that are pollution tolerant, slightly tolerant, and pollution intolerant. Since we found a few pollution intolerant macros, more slightly tolerant macros, and a few pollution tolerant macros we were able to decide that Parkerson Mill Creek was moderately healthy!
We all posed as our favorite macroinvertebrate in a group picture before returning all our incredible macroinvertebrates back to their home in the creek and saying goodbye!