Biotic Water Quality Monitoring

Why collect data?

PBSE EFFORT ALERT: Biotic (living) water quality monitoring is a flexible PBE effort (and a meaningful watershed educational experience!) that can take place in both the field and classroom.

Macroinvertebrates can serve as living water quality indicators as some species are more sensitive to pollution while others are more tolerant.

Michigan Clean Water Corps (MiCorps)

While MiCorps program does not directly work with schools - educators and students can collaborate with your community watershed or conservation groups in this water monitoring effort. Community partners can bring local watershed knowledge and expertise into your education conversations - and students can provide the volunteer time and enthusiasm to observe, collect, and record data.

Vernal Pools

Little information is currently available on the status, distribution, and ecology of vernal pools in Michigan. This information is needed to effectively manage and protect these unique and important wetlands.

PBSE EFFORT ALERT: The MI Vernal Pool Patrol is a community science opportunity to help monitor vernal pools, or seasonal wetlands.

What to test, how to test it, and why is it important?

Macroinvertebrates

WHAT are macroinvertebrates?

Macroinvertebrates are small creatures living in the water - without a backbone and visible without a microscope.

Species Classification & Roles in Food Web

Let's explore how we classify an living organism's place in a food web (trophic level). Primary producers are autotrophic (ex. plants, algae and some bacteria). Primary consumers are herbivores; secondary consumers may be carnivores or omnivores. Tertiary consumers are those carnivores that eat other carnivores. Decomposers play a pivotal role in food webs as well!

Macroinvertebrates are a part of the aquatic food web in rivers, streams, and lakes. Explore the different (functional feeding) roles they can play in the food web here.

RESOURCE: Alliance for the Great Lakes Food Chains & Food Webs Lesson: Map out the food chain of a Great Lakes species with your students

What kind of food webs or chains are supported by your PBSE site?

WHY are macroinvertebrates important?

Macroinvertebrates can serve as living water quality indicators. Some species are more sensitive to pollution while others are more tolerant.

Why study macroinvertebrates and not fish?... because FISH SWIM!

Fish, while equally sensitive to their aquatic environments, simply have the ability to swim among habitats as conditions - or their habitat needs - change (e.g. searching for food). This ability also makes them slightly more difficult to sample or catch. Invertebrates tend to be less mobile and more directly influenced by their immediate water habitats (also making them easier to sample or catch!). Absence of fish in a sample could simply mean they left the area for a day, where absence of invertebrates can speak more directly to the habitability of the environment for each particular species (some tolerant, some not so much). This all said - fish are not at all lost from the bio-monitoring story though - beyond water quality indicators, macroinvertebrates also play key role in food web.

Field-based tools & lessons

Tools needed for macroinvertebrate sampling

  • Sampling net | DIY: Learn how to make your own sampling tools here.

  • Bins/tools (e.g. tubs, ice cube trays, spoons, petri dishes) for sorting samples | Reuse containers/spoons/etc. for sampling tools.

  • Optional: Magnifying tools

    • Magiscopes

    • Macrolens

  • Waders/Life Jacket (if youth are getting in the water)

DATASHEETS

River Exploration & Riparian Connections

RESOURCE: Indigenous STEAM: Macroinvertebrate Sampling Lesson: Explore relationships between water, human, and more-than-human relatives

RESOURCE: Here is a river investigation datasheet you can use to investigate the riparian zone.

RESOURCE: Stream Flow Using Float to Measure Velocity Lesson: Learn how to calculate stream flow.

Field Visit Alternative

If field visits are difficult, you can also complete the macroinvertebrate ID in the classroom. You can sample for macroinvertebrates the evening before using them in the classroom and keep them cool with ice cubes throughout their use. Release them at same sampling site. Community partners can also help with sampling!

As an extension, past classes have taken samples from different parts of a watershed comparing data and seeing if there are water quality differences. You can also compare/contrast biodiversity by comparing population counts.

PBSE Effort Alert: Leaf Pack Network

Macroinvertebrates use leaf packs as habitat in waterways. The Leaf Pack Network® is an international network of teachers, students, and citizen monitors investigating their local stream ecosystems. Students can also develop and experiment with leaf pack design!

This network is supported by the Stroud Water Research Center.

Sanitizing Equipment

Sanitize equipment if changing locations to STOP the spread of invasive species!

Materials needed for disinfecting equipment include:

  • Plastic bucket

  • Gallon of chlorine bleach (6% concentration of sodium hypochlorite)

  • Two stiff scrub brushes, one for sterilization and one for cleaning off mud/dirt

  • Rubber dishwashing gloves

  • Spray bottle

When to disinfect

Disinfection should be performed ideally at your car/in a parking area before the leaving the study site. If this is not possible, disinfection should be performed at home after a vernal pool surveying or monitoring day.

NOTE: All sterilizing with bleach solution should be done well away from streams or ponds.

How to sanitize equipment? (Vernal Pool Patrol Resource)

  1. Wash and scrub the equipment/boots with clean water to remove as much of the mud/dirt and other debris as possible.

  2. Rinse the equipment/boots with clear water.

  3. Fill bucket with two gallons (8 quarts/32 cups) clear water.

  4. Add 1 cup of bleach to 2 gallons of water (for a 3% concentration) and stir to mix.

  5. Immerse the equipment in the disinfectant/bleach solution and scrub it with a brush, or completely wet the equipment with the solution.

    • Dip shoes in solution and scrub and shake off.

    • Dip and scrub waders in bucket or lay them on the ground and pour solution on them. A spray bottle can also be used to apply solution.

    • Sterilize brushes in solution.

  6. Rinse again with clear water. If after doing this, the equipment still smells of bleach, rinse it again.

  7. If possible, save any remaining sterilization solution in a sealable container for future use. If solution must be discarded, dispose of on asphalt, cement or hard roadbed, away from any water bodies.

  8. Allow gear and equipment to dry completely before use at next site, if possible.

Classroom-based tools & resources

Training BEFORE the field visit

RESOURCE & PBSE EFFORT ALERT: Thunder Bay River Watershed Project Classroom Training! is an example presentation used to introduce and train Alpena Public School elementary student teams.

Training helped students understand foundational watershed concepts, monitoring parameters, and sampling techniques (and practicing!) that they would be using in the field. This preparation ensured data collected by teams - from several different school buildings and testing at different watershed sites - were high quality and comparably 'on the same page.'


Macromania Kits (paper training cards for improving macroinvertegrate ID) are available through the NEMIGLSI lending network.


Analyzing the data

Google sheets can be useful for compiling, organizing, analyzing, and sharing data.

Students can design their own Google sheets for compiling data. Exploring Google formulas can be a fun way to connect with Math standards.

Exploring biodiversity

The Water Life Explorer tool helps you identify aquatic species in Lake Huron (and other Great Lakes!).

Fish Identification Tools (in case you find any fish during your sampling)

Community Partner Connections

Who are some of the partners that focus on biotic water quality in the Great Lakes basin and Michigan?

Michigan State University Extension - Lakes, Streams, and Watersheds Team

Find contact information for the MSU Extension Lakes, Streams, and Watersheds team experts.

Michigan Natural Features Inventory

Connect with zoologists, herpetologists, and wildlife biologists!

Learn more about MNFI-supported woodland Vernal Pool Patrol project.

Tribal Natural Resource Departments (many include environmental, hatchery or fishery operations). Here are some examples of tribal Natural Resource/Environmental Department:

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (Mount Pleasant area), Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa (Traverse City area), and Little River Band of Ottawa Indians (Manistee area). These are only 3 out of 12 in Michigan!

Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA)

Learn more about Chippewa Ottawa Resource Authority (CORA) here.

Place-Based Stewardship Education

NEMIGLSI Case Study: Investigating Local Rivers and Connecting to our Great Lakes

PBE Watershed Study: Explore Slides 11-21 to see how Au Gres-Sims School District developed their river investigation and connected activities.