Adventure Learning (AL) on Lake FernanMR. ANDERSON & MR. KNIGGE

SUMMER 2014

Question: Does stream velocity affect macroinvertebrate quality?

Hypothesis:

If stream velocity is high, then macroinvertebrate quality will be high.

Procedure

GPS location of site tested

Measure stream velocity of three sites within our GPS location High velocity

Medium velocity

Low Velocity

Using the ball and string method, we tested stream flow

Use kick net and shovel to collect macros at each flow site

Identified the quality of the macros collected from 3 flow sites based on tolerance for water quality

High Flow Rate--Riffle(1.13 m/s)

Medium Flow Rate– Run(0.6 m/s)

Low Flow Rate– Glide(0.02 m/s)

Collecting Our Data!

Stream Velocity Pictures

High Velocity

Medium Velocity

Low Velocity

Results

HQ Macros MQ Macros LQ Macros

High Flow (1.13 m/s)

30 5 20

Medium Flow (0.60 m/s)

5 37 6

Low Flow (0.02 m/s)

0 2 8

Results—Graph

High Flow (1.13 m/s) Medium Flow (0.60 m/s) Low Flow (0.02 m/s)0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Macro Quality and Stream Flow

HQ Macros MQ Macros LQ Macros Total

Data Analysis

High Flow Lots of HQ organisms and lots of LQ organisms

Medium Flow Predominantly MQ organisms

Low flow Mainly LQ organisms, but holistically few organisms

Conclusion

Our data supports our hypothesis

More HQ organisms were present in the high flow rate AND a larger population of organisms was discovered

As anticipated, the low flow rate site had fewer HQ organisms AND a smaller total population

In our hypothesis, we did not anticipate the large number of LQ organisms in the high flow rate site Future Research/Question: In a high flow rate site, with lots of HQ

macros would we see a trend in the number of LQ organisms?

Adventure Learning at THS

Outline/Intro Spirit Lake Quality Project

Teach Content of Ecology

Show/demo IdaH2O processes

Test Determine teams and assign roles based on test results

Practice processes

Field Day Gather data and enter into HIS

Prepare Presentation

Spirit Lake Water Quality Summit Invite community, experts, students, teachers

Confluence Project??