Monitoring Water Quality in Streams

Did You Know?

Benthic macroinvertebrates are large enough to see without a microscope. Here's a breakdown of the meaning:

• Benthic = bottom of a waterbody
• Macro = large
• Invertebrate = animal without a backbone

Water Quality Indicators

Aquatic insects are important to the food chain and don’t survive without clean water. All living creatures rely on each other and a healthy environment to live.

1. Mayflies eat leaves, algae, decomposing plants, and other smaller organisms in a stream.
2. Larger aquatic organisms, like darter fish, feed on these insects.
3. Larger fish or fish-eating birds, like great blue herons, eat darter fish.
4. As adults - mayflies are food for insect-eating birds, amphibians, and mammals that live near a stream.
5. Larger predators, like the red-shouldered hawk, eat these animals.

Water pollution happens when stormwater runoff picks up plastics, chemicals, oil, dirt, paint, litter, and other hazardous materials as it flows to nearby streams.

Wildlife in the Streams

• Aquatic insects (mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies)
• Worms
• Snails
• Clams
• Crayfish
• Fish, like darter fish

Wildlife Around Streams

• Mammals, like raccoons, grey foxes, beavers, and deer
• Turtles
• Snakes
• Lizards
• Frogs
• Salamanders
• Birds, like Blue Herons
• Insects