Students at Solano Community College often conduct studies of freshwater macroinvertebrates in Suisun Creek to view biodiversity and to determine water quality. The upstream and downstream sites rests on private property identified to the students only

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Nandita Natasha Naidu
Bio Science 1
8
th December, 2004
Mr. John Nogue

Introduction:

        Biodiversity is an important theme in biology and is crucial to the prosperity and survival of humans.  The benefits that ecosystems and individual species provide to humans are countless:  clean air and water, detoxification and decomposition of wastes, preservation of fertile soils, control of agricultural pests, aesthetic beauty, (Campbell & Reece, 2002) and many more.  Moreover, biodiversity is commonly studied to view community structure and the health of a particular region.  Species richness and abundance values can help biologists address certain environmental concerns and possible solutions to issues they may find.  Bio Science 1 students at Solano Community College often conduct studies of freshwater macroinvertebrates in Suisun Creek to view biodiversity and to determine water quality. The upstream and downstream sites rests on private property identified to the students only as “Frank’s Place”. The settings of the Suisun Creek sites were both overwhelmed with vegetation and overhead canopies. Timing of sampling is directly related to the resulting collected species. Species diversity indices, such as Family-level biotic Index, are used to provide important information on the community structure of freshwater macroinvertebrates and can often tell us the overall health of the region we are studying also FBI provides a rapid, but less critical, evaluation of streams in the field by biologists who can recognize arthropod families by sight. The non-living, abiotic components that the class attempted to research at all three stream locations included taking readings of the water's: temperature (oC), dissolved oxygen [% saturation and (mg/l)], conductivity (µS), specific conductance (µS), salinity (ppt), and pH.  Dissolved oxygen is a measured value of the oxygen content that is present in the water. Low amounts of oxygen present in the water can be fatal to the insects, plants, and animals that live near or within the stream. A low dissolved oxygen content is often an indicator of organic pollution. Oxygen in aquatic environments is highly variable and generally low, and may be affected by many factors, such as temperature, salinity, respiration, and photosynthesis of aquatic plants. The more Dissolved oxygen is in creeks the better and healthier the water is for organisms to survive.  Conductivity is a measure of how well the water can conduct an electrical impulse.  It is also dependent on the water temperature and the dissolved solutes.  Conductivity is affected by the presence of inorganic wastes in the water. The pollution or wastes are ions that carry out a negative charge. Conductivity is a measure of the flow of electrical current, made possible in water by ions in solution. Conductivity is sometimes used as an index of pollution. The measure of specific conductance is very similar to the measuring conductivity; however, the temperature was fixed at 25 degrees Celsius.  Basically, all one is measuring then for specific conductance are the salts present. Salinity is a measure of how much salt exists in the water. The biotic or living components that the class observed included the bio diversity of aquatic insects.  After catching as many insects at the streams as possible, the class combined their invertebrate findings and brought them back to the lab to take a better look under the microscope. The water appearance was clear muddy since its rainy season and the streambed coating was orange- reddish and brown-greenish color.  The class goal was to identify as many species of insects and to count the abundance of each species from each stream. A group of volunteers from the Sierra foothills found that Tracking the abundance and diversity of invertebrates within the streams and lakes was one of the best ways to monitor the health of the water (Levy, Sharon, 1998). After reading up on their report, I found out that they found more conductivity in one body of water than the other due to one of the locations having easy access to minerals or materials that pollute the water. Therefore, my hypothesis is to compare and contrast the biodiversity of macroinvertebrates in two different site locations of Suisun Creek and to provide possible explanations for their differences and similarities.

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Materials and Methods:


        Suisun Creek is located in Solano County, California and is branch of Napa River, which flows to Suisun Marsh.  Two sampling sites were considered for this study.  Site B as downstream and located on the Franks place or also known as Frank’s main place. A faculty member of Solano Community College privately owns Franks place. Frank’s Place is available from Freeway 80 off Suisun Valley Road.  Frank’s place is approximately 5 miles down Suisun Valley Road on the right at 8431.  Both had the most noticeable characteristics of a stream such as rapid runs, pools, ...

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