Biological Monitoring

This page provides a brief overview of the Biological Monitoring program for Paxton Creek. Click to view Biological Data.

Overview - Aquatic invertebrates, also called benthic macro-
invertebrates, live in streams and serve as good indicators
of watershed health for a number of reasons:

live in the water for all or most of their life
are easy to collect
are easy to identify in a laboratory
reflect environmental conditions
differ in their tolerance to amount and types
of pollution

Different types and varying numbers of macro-
invertebrates are found in all different environmental
conditions. For example, stoneflies are considered to be clean
water macroinvertebrates because they primarily live in waterways
with a high amount of oxygen, good habitat, and a low amount of
pollutants.

Other macroinvertebrates, such as worms and midges, are tolerant of a wide range of environmental conditions. Therefore, they are found in both high quality streams and streams inflicted with chemicals, nutrients, and low habitat quality.

Unfortunately, conditions are not always cut and dry. Certain species of stoneflies can be tolerant of a number of different pollution conditions. So it is important to consider a number of complex methods to determine the health of waterways for aquatic life.