Stream Monitoring Week 6

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Stream Monitoring - Week 6

• Updated Results Peer Review
• Updated Results and Field Notebook due
• Lecture on algae and invasive plants
• Explain Discussion Section
• Next week bacteria lab
• Nitrate and Phosphate Testing
• Additional Excel Help

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Algae

• Simple eukaryotic photosynthetic organisms
• Unicellular or multicellular
• No vascular system, and do not develop from an
  embryo.
• Chlorophyta, green pigmented algae
• Unicellular, Filamentous, and Colonial
• Examples include Chlorella, Spirogyra,
  Scenedesmus, Oedogonium, Volvox

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Examples of Freshwater Algae

• Chlorella Spirogyra and Cladophora
• Filamentous green alga which is common in
  freshwater habitats
• Very fine bright dark-green filaments
• Slimy to the touch
• Slime deters attachment by other organisms

Cladophora glomerata
Spirogyra sp.
http//vis-pc.plantbio.ohiou.edu/algaeimage/pages/
Cladophora.html
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Algae as Indicators of Water Quality

• Algal blooms are a sign of eutrophication
• Nutrients could be in excess
• Dissolved oxygen levels could be low
• Taste and odor problems drinking water
• Increased concentrations of toxic disinfection
  by-products in drinking water
• High pH

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Sources leading to stream enrichment

• Point Sources
• Wastewater treatment plants
• Fish hatcheries
• Non Point Sources
• Soil erosion
• Fertilizers
• Ntrogen-fixing plant species
• Atmospheric deposition, field burning, and
  livestock (CH4)
• Nutrient enriched ground water

6
Freshwater Diatoms

• Unicellular Algae Phylum Bacillariophyta
• Live inside glass houses called frustules
  (silican dioxide)
• Diatomoceous earth toothpaste!
• 2 forms
• Centric (petri dish)
• Pennate (elongate)
• Can form long chains
• Benthic (pond scum) and pelagic forms
• Can be very dense on aquatic plants and substrate
• Base of the food web!!

Diatom growing on a Cladophora filament
http//www.micrographia.com
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http//www.biology.usgs.gox/st/noframe/m2097.htm
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Diatoms as Indicators of Water
Quality

• Require specific physical, chemical and
  biological charicteristics in stream/lake
• Can be used to monitor environmental change
• Indicators of acidification, eutrophication,
  changes in overall water quality, climate change
• 25-35 of lakes in Adirondacks more acidic since
  pre-industrial times
• gt population growth with gt eutrophication,
  sediment core samples

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Invasive and Non-native Species
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Invasive Species

• About 50,000 in the U.S.
• 600 considered to be a problem
• Major area of conservation
• 137 billion/year

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Invasive Species

• Definitions
• Exotic species not native to the ecosystem
• Established self-sustaining population in
  non-native ecosystem, not spreading
• Invasive not native, established, spreading

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Invasive Species

• Introductions
• Deliberate many horticultural yard plants,
  released pets, warm water fish
• Accidental ship ballast water, packaging
  material, boat bottoms, stowaways, canals

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Invasive Species

• Why So Successful?
• No competitors
• Superior competitors
• Modify biophysical environment
• Empty niche (role in ecosystem)
• Reproductive mode
• Generalists

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Invasive Species

• Effects on Ecosystem
• Change in biological diversity
• Change in food web structure
• Change in community structure

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Lythrum salicaria L. (Purple Loosestrife)

• Impacts of Purple Loosestrife on Wetlands
• Found in 42 of 50 states
• Wetlands infested with purple loosestrife often
  lose 50 of native plant biomass
• Some wetland have been 100 infested
• Predator/prey relationships change due to changes
  in food and cover
• Results in a reduction of vertebrate and
  invertebrate populations
• Highly competitive plant especially threatens
  endangered, threatened, or declining plant and
  animal species

http//www.invasivespecies.gov/
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Japanese Knotweed Polygonum cuspidatum

• Early successional colonizer
• Requires a lot of light
• Threat to native vegetation because it often
  forms dense patches which shade out all other
  plants
• A particular threat in riparian areas where it
  can survive floods and quickly colonize scoured
  streambanks
• Difficult to eradicate once it has become
  established

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Himalayan blackberry

• Import from Eurasia
• Aggressive, rapidly overtops and smothers
  understory vegetation in the riparian forest
• Spreads by extending long runners which root at
  the ends
• A colony of blackberry can widen by 10 ft. or
  more a year smothering every plant in its path
• Huge areas of diverse riparian shrubs and forbs
  have been turned into low productive monocultures

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Reed Canary GrassPhalaris arundinacea

• Large, coarse grass that reaches 2 to 9 feet in
  height.
• spreads aggressively
• Planted since the 1800's for forage and erosion
  control
• Prefers disturbed areas, but can easily move
  into native wetlands
• Invasion is associated with disturbances
  including ditching of wetlands, stream
  channelization, deforestation of swamp forests,
  sedimentation, and intentional planting
• Forms large, monotypic stands that harbor few
  other plant species and are subsequently of
  little use to wildlife

http//www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/er/invasive/fa
ctsheets/reed.htm
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Eurasian Water Millfoil, Brazilian Elodea and
Hydrilla verticillata

• Competes aggressively with native aquatic
  plants
• Ability to grow in eutrophic conditions and
  over a broad temperature range
• Forms a dense canopy that overtops and shades
  out existing vegetation
• Less nutrient value than the native plant
  species it replaces
• Dense beds support a lower abundance of
  invertebrates than do native aquatic plants

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Animal Non-natives and Invasives
Nutria Myocastor coypus modify habitat, eat
plants, spread pathogens
Bullfrog Rana catesbeiana - predator