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.