biology-animal ecology development ( biodiversity survey report )

Biodiversity survey of benthic macroinvertebrates, Cedar Creek Park, Allentown,

Department of Biological Sciences at Cedar Crest College

Material and Methods

Samples of microhabitat were collected from a stream running through Cedar Creek Park on 24 September 2018. Each group sampled from a different place throughout the river to collect more diverse species from microhabitat. There are three types sample collected which they have different size of rocks. The first sample is boulder their rocks was larger than 25cm and cobble their rocks size was 5cm to 25cm, the second type of microhabitat is gravel which their rocks size is about 0.25cm to 5cm, and the last type of microhabitat is sand which their rocks was about smaller than 0.25 and silt which their rocks size was very fine that means really small than the other types of microhabitat. For each different type of microhabitat there are counted all the different species of organisms saw inside the container and it entered data sheet on excel. Groups wore boots and used nets to collect samples of leaves, sand, and fine rocks. The process followed by kicked the net into bottom of the place that we took the samples from. The net kicked about 30 second is to get large number of samples, then it transferred into plastic container.

Result

Figure 1: This graph shows the microhabitat of Sand/ Silt, there are different types of macroinvertebrates taxa with different numbers in Sand/Silt.

This graph shows different macroinvertebrates taxa that found in Sand and Silt microhabitat. This microhabitat has different size of rocks for sand it should be smaller than 25cm and for silt it should be very fine. The taxa order differently, and it shows the higher macroinvertebrates taxa, middle macroinvertebrates and the lower macroinvertebrates, and there are some species they don’t show up on the graph which means that they have zero numbers of their frequency. The total of macroinvertebrates that found in sand and silt is 223. The higher macroinvertebrate is Class Bivalvia (aquatic worms), and the lower macroinvertebrates it had zero frequency which they are present nothing there are many of taxa didn’t show up as example, Oreder Hemipetera (truebugs). For Sand and Silt it has calculation of Shannon-Weiner (SW) which is equal to 2.27023 which is the total proportion multiplied inproportion of sand/silt, and the calculation of Jaccard Coefficient of gravel and sand/silt is about 72%.

Figure2: Graph shows the macroinvertebrates taxa and the frequency of each type.

The graph explains the order of macroinvertebrates taxa with different frequency. I show higher and lower and the middle frequency of macroinvertebrates. All these number important to know about the frequency of organisms that live in river water. The macroinvertebrates they are collected from gravel that have 0.25cm to 5cm size of rocks. It had calculations for Shannon-Weiner (SW) which is equal to 2.27023 which means the total of proportion times inproportion n. and it has calculation of Jaccard Coefficient (CC) for gravel and boulder/cobble which is about 87.5%.

Figure 3: It shows the boulder/cobble macrohabitat what it had of frequency of different macroinvertebrates.

The graph gives detail of the frequency of different species that founded in boulder/cobble macrohabitat. It shows the higher frequency of macroinvertebrates taxa and lower frequency of macroinvertebrates of taxa. After these data it calculated the Shannon-Weiner (SW) for boulder/cobble is about 2.17456, and it calculated the Jaccard Coefficient (CC) of sand/silt and boulder/cobble which is about 87.5%.

Figure 4: explain the proportion times inproportion of all taxa and all macrohabitat.

This graph shows the total proportion times inproportion for the three different macrohabitat related to different macroinvertebrates. It shows the higher taxa and the lower taxa frequency related to proportion times inproportion numbers. All numbers of proportion and inproportion was from zero and below which they are had negative sign. But the calculation total proportion times inproportion of these three different macrohabitat is equal to number with positive sign. Compared sand/silt to gravel and boulder/cobble they are almost had the same number. For sand/silt it is about 2.27023, for gravel is about 2.20619, and for boulder/cobble is about 2.17546 which they are closer if we just look at the first number which is equal to 2 but, if we look to the other number after the point it looks the sand/silt is large number, and gravel is the middle number and the lower number is boulder/cobble.

Discussion

There is a correlation between the microhabitat and the species diversity of organisms found. Shannon-Weiner results are important to conclude that there is some species does not show up and some spices have higher number with the three different microhabitats. The three different microhabitat is sand/sild, gravel, and boulder/cobble they have differ Shannon-Wiener and the most biodiverse is sand/silt is about 2.2703 which is a higher number. For the Jaccard calculation there is also different between the number which the most biodiverse is boulder/cobble.

The study was done with two different places in America on1998 in La Selva, Costa Rica, and northern side slope of Panama, they was talking about the biomes, and looking for the type of macroinvertebrates and companies these three to each other's but here in our class we went to the same river but different place in the same river and we collect different microhabitat, which they are sand/silt, louder/cobble, and gravel. ” Non-insects macroinvertebrates were identities only to the class or order level” (Alonso et al.1998).that means all macroinvertebrates they are small and very fine living organisms they have different place or environment to live and to react with another organisms are survival to reproduce. “We may assume that the scale at which macroinvertebrates exhibit the grates variation compresses the scale over which important physical/chemical gradients or biotic interaction control assemblage composition”(J.Li et al.2001). There are different things that the macroinvertebrates can affect with. Biotic which means the living things for example, parasitism's, praetors, and hosts. Abiotic which they are nonliving things for example, air, water, chemical and physical things.

The other type of data that I might like to collect in the future to better understand observed patterns is fishes, is because you will see them clear and they are not much small to collect, and I will see different types of fishes and sizes. And the data collect I will go to sea is more lagers area for water than river and we can find everything inside it.

Literature cited

Alonso et al.1998.effect of habitat type on benthic macroinvertebrates in two lowland tropical streams, Costa Rica. Rev.biol.trop.46.supl.6:201-213,1998

J.Li et al.2001.Variability in stream macroinvertebrates at multiple spatial scales .freshwater biology(2001) 46,87-97