Draft 1 Proposal: Human Impact on the biodiversity of four Mile Creek

This topic submitted by Megen Leigh, Les Arms, Diane Jones ( arwyn3@hotmail.com ) on 2/13/03. [ Rivers Team: Megen Leigh, Les Arms, Diane Jones-Section: Blaisdell/Wolfe]

Introduction:
Our group will be looking at two ways humans have affected Four Mile Creek. First off, we will be studying the physical changes humans have made to the creek and the area around the creek. Then we will study the biodiversity of the creek and how the changes humans have made have affected the biodiversity of the creek. We believe that the water of the creek just below Acton Lake will be healthier than the water further down, in the part of the creek near more developed areas, and agricultural areas around and below Oxford. Our project is interdisciplinary because we will be studying the biodiversity and the history of the creek as well as gaining a cultural perspective from the people who use the creek.

The basics of what we are studying is how has our human involvement in the physical aspects of "river management" has on the biology of the river. And to the extent which the streams or rivers are affected. We plan to determine the extent of the problem with the river, through biodiversity tests, and compare that with what the people who use it think of the river. And we are going to learn more than we ever wanted to know about Four Mile creek in the process.

Our project is relevant to the course because our course is studying how humans interact with rivers and how these interactions affect us, the creatures living in and around the rivers, and the river itself.

Relevance:

DeVillez, Edward J. et al. Laboratory Experiences for Biological Concepts. Departments of Biology, Microbiology, and Zoology. MU. 2002.

This source is used to find the information that is used in the section discussing our research design/methods.

Malard, Florian et.al. "A landscape perspective of surface-subsurface hydrological exchanges in river corridors." Freshwater Biology 47 (2002): 621-40.

This article talks about the river bed topography and how it effects the general ecosystem around and in the river. This will be a main resource.

Moulton, Timothy P. "Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in conservation of rivers and streams." Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 9 (1999): 573-78.

This article talks about the question of whether or not we need to preserve biodiversity in order to maintain the use of the ecosystems, and whether we should use our efforts to preserve wildlife or function.

Montuelle, B. et. al. "Changes in Nitrobacter serotypes biodiversity in a river: Impact of a wastewater treatment Plant Discharge." Wat. Res. Vol. 30 No. 5 (1996): 1057-64.

This is a study about the influence of a water treatment plant on the "nitrobacter" of a stream. Because these organisms are at the bottom of the food chain, it follows that the larger organisms would be effected by principles of biomagnification.

Neumann, Micheal et.al. "The impact of agricultural runoff on stream benthos in Hong Kong, China." Water Research 36 (2002): 3103-09.

This talks specifically about China but generally about the effects of agricultural runoff/shaping of streams on the stream health.

Samways, M.J. et.al. "An aquatic ecotone and its significance in conservation." Biodiversity and Conservation 6 (1997): 1429-44.

This talks about a sampling of aquatic invertebrates through an area of a stream flowing from a man made reservoir to where it hits another stream, and talks abou the probable effects of the reservoir on the stream.

Vuori, Kari-Matti et.al. "Forest Drainage: a threat to benthic biodiversity of boreal headwater streams?" Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 8 (1998): 745-59.

This article talks about the effects of man-induced drainage in forests near streams, and runoff from agricultural areas on stream biodiversity.

Ward, J.V. et. al. "Biodiveristy: towards a unifying theme for river ecology." Freshwater Biology 46 (2001): 807-19.

This article talks about how the various levels of species diversity are a result of the disturbance history of the area, resource partitioning, and the breaking up of habitats. We will use this as a reference in our discussion of results.

Zalewski, Maciej et. al. "The importance of the riparian ecotone and river hydralics for sustainable basin-style restoration scenarios." Aquatic conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 8 (1998): 287-307.

This talks about the effect that changes in riparian zones, especially around farms has on the viability of the river.

Devon Biodiversity Action Plan. http://www.devon.gov.uk/biodiversity/rivers.html (February 13, 2003).

A community action plan on how to improve the biodiversity in a local river area.

Geoindicators. http://www.lgt.lt:8080/geoin/welcome (February 13, 2003).

This is a site that has many indicators of geographic and river health.

EPA Aquatic Diversity. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. http://www.epa.gov/bioiweb1/aquatic/river-r.html#health (February 13, 2003).

This site has lots of information on rivers and indicators of healthy rivers.

Habitat Statement for Rivers and Streams. UK Biodiversity. http://www.ukbap.org.uk/asp/UKPlans.asp?UKListID=59 (February 13, 2003).

This site talks about the importance and indicators of biodiversity.

The Created Need. http://www.ontariostreams.on.ca/srm/introduction/need.html (February 13, 2003).

This site talks about how now we feel we need nice water and how we have destroyed most of our good clean water.

We have other resources that we havenÕt had a chance to look through, including a resource on the park district plans, and the changes made in the stream to construct Akton lake.

Interdisciplinary Approach:

Our research project is focusing on the scientific ramifications of the socio-culturally motivated human intervention in the physical course of the river. The specific effects, will be measured in terms of biodiversity. To discover the various uses of the river by the people, and if they think/see that there are/arenÕt problems with the river, we are interviewing the people who use it, including someone from the park district, farmers, and non-western students at the university, giving us a cultural perspective. All of this will be contextualized in terms of the history of physical changes in the specific areas that we are testing.

Specific Research Design:

Our experiment will be measuring the biodiversity of the fish in the stream in three different locations-- near Acton Lake, an area with little agricultural or other disturbances, and an area near agricultural land. The electroshocker will be used to stun fish so that they can be counted and classified. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (HÕ) will then be calculated for each of these areas. HÕ is calculated by the equation HÕ = - å pi ln pi where pi is "the proportion of the total number of individuals in all the morphotypes that fall into the iÕth morphotype" (DeVillez 86). The morphotype, in this case, is the classification of the fish. For instance, a darter species will be one morphotype. Since we cannot be expected to be able to identify every species and subspecies accurately, morphotypes (the way the fish look) will be used to classify the fish into groups for evaluation of diversity. The HÕ value gives a number that can then be used to compare the biodiversity of each area. Our hypothesis is that areas that are less disturbed by human activity will be have a higher HÕ value and therefore more biodiversity.

The riparian zones will be used to determine how affected an area is by human activity. If the riparian zone is small due to agricultural use of land, then human impact is greater than if the riparian zone is composed of a large old-growth forest. Measurements of the riparian zone will include: types of trees, circumference of trees, and width of riparian zone when possible.

The cultural research dimension of our project will include interviews with park service employees (because of research near Acton Lake) and local farmers about how Four Mile Creek is important to them and what effects it has on them and what effects they feel that have on it.

The answers to these questions will be contextualized on a historical basis.

Materials/Methods:

Our interview will consist of these questions:
What influence do you feel the river has over your life?
What influence (if any) do you feel you have over the river?
What do you normally think of when someone talks about the river?
Are you aware of any specific problems in the river?

Materials that are necessary for our research include the electroshocking device and gear associated with it, buckets for categorized fish, our data sheets and a calculator. Our team will coordinate with one another to go together to the research sites for evaluations. We are aware that there are other groups who are using the electroshocker and will be coordinating with them as well.

The form of the data sheet is as follows:

Morphotype

# individuals

Pi

ln Pi

Pi ln Pi

1

#

#

#

#

2

#

#

#

#

3

#

#

#

#

TOTALS

total individuals

1.0

irrelevant

-H'

The time line for our project consists of one day for each site. The days of measurements will be (FILL IN THE BLANK). Meaning, we have not as yet worked out a timetable in which we can use the electroshocker by ourselves or in conjunction with another group.

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