Draft 2 Proposal: Human Impact on the biodiversity of four Mile Creek

This topic submitted by Megen Leigh, Les Arms, Diane Jones ( jonesdr@muohio.edu ) on 2/23/03. [ 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 the usage of the river has on the biology of the river and the extent to 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:
Cunningham, William P. and Mary Ann Cunningham. Principles of Environmental Science: Inquiry and Applications. New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 2002.
This source provides basic environmental knowledge about principles. It will be used for its historical information as well as its principles of ecology and resource management. It contains historical information on the parks system and the environmental movement in general.
DeVillez, Edward J. et al. Laboratory Experiences for Biological Concepts. Departments of Biology, Microbiology, and Zoology. MU. 2002.
This source provided information about biodiversity indexes and how to calculate them. It was used for our research methods section of this proposal and will continue to be important as we continue the project.
Malard, Florian et.al. ÒA landscape perspective of surface-subsurface hydrological exchanges in river corridors.Ó Freshwater Biology 47 (2002): 621-40.
This article talks about the river bed topography and how it affects the general ecosystem around and in the river. This will be a main resorce. It also discusses the connections from one ecosystem to the next and the three-dimensional nature of streams that can sometimes be overlooked. It describes relationships to geomorphology and concentrations of nutrients and organisms.
Moulton, Timothy P. ÒBiodiversity and ecosystem functioning in conservation of rivers and streams.Ó 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. This research shows the importance of biodiversity in conserving river health. It grounds our research project by showing how important the topic of biodiversity is. It also shows that we are not the only ones who think so. This article also shows how biodiversity in a community is related to not only the health of that particular community, but other communitiesÕ health as well.
Montuelle, B. et. al. ÒChanges in Nitrobacter serotypes biodiversity in a river: Impact of a wastewater treatment Plant Discharge.Ó Wat. Res. Vol. 30 No. 5 (1996): 1057-64.
This is a study about the influence of a water treatment plant on the ÒnitrobacterÓ of a stream. Because these organisms are at the bottom of the food chain, it follows that the larger organisms would be affected by principles of biomagnification. It discusses the changes seen after discharge of the treated wastewater from the wastewater treatment plant.
Neumann, Micheal et.al. ÒThe impact of agricultural runoff on stream benthos in Hong Kong, China.Ó Water Research 36 (2002): 3103-09.
This article talks specifically about China but generally about the effects of agricultural runoff/shaping of streams on the stream health. It discusses issues of biodiversity associated with runoff from fields after heavy rainfall. Despite its focus on China, it has obvious significance to all agricultural areas, including those surrounding Four Mile Creek.
Samways, M.J. et.al. ÒAn aquatic ecotone and its significance in conservation.Ó Biodiversity and Conservation 6 (1997): 1429-44.
This article 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 about the probable effects of the reservoir on the stream. It defines differences in streams and rivers below and above dams and reservoirs. It also provides crucial information about lotic and lentic aquatic environments (that is, standing and flowing water) and how dams interrupt the connections between the two and the importance of this juncture, or ecotone.
Vuori, Kari-Matti et.al. ÒForest Drainage: a threat to benthic biodiversity of boreal headwater streams?Ó 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. It also discusses the drainage of the areas based on dominant species in the surrounding forests. It takes into account the width of the riparian zone and the acreage of the forest surrounding the stream.
Ward, J.V. et. al. ÒBiodiveristy: towards a unifying theme for river ecology.Ó 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. ÒThe importance of the riparian ecotone and river hydralics for sustainable basin-style restoration scenarios.Ó Aquatic conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 8 (1998): 287-307.
This article talks about the effect that changes in riparian zones, especially around farms has on the viability of the river. It discusses relationships between riparian zones and biodiversity. It also discusses biodiversity differences in riffles versus pools and seasonal changes.
Devon Biodiversity Action Plan. http://www.devon.gov.uk/biodiversity/rivers.html (February 13, 2003).
This website is a discussion of a community action plan on how to improve the biodiversity in a local river area. It will provide information about the process used to improve stream health and issues that surround overall stream health and biodiversity.
Geoindicators. http://www.lgt.lt:8080/geoin/welcome (February 13, 2003).
This is a site that discusses many indicators of geographic and river health. The entire site is dedicated to indicators of environmental health and will be useful to us in analyzing our results in order to come to a conclusion on the health related to biodiversity of the stream.
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. It includes information about biodiversity in first, second, and third order streams. It also includes information about the geomorphology of streams and how it affects stream health.
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. It discusses factors that affect the habitat, legal issues surrounding environmental issues, and management issues in the UK. It will offer a basis of comparison for issues surrounding streams here.
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 = the negative sum of pi ln pi where pi is Òthe proportion of the total number of individuals in all the morphotypes that fall into the iÕth morphotypeÓ (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 by looking at the history of the parks, history of agricultural river usage, and history of each sectionÕs usage, and history of laws implemented to protect and manage rivers and streams.

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 March 23rd and the two following Sundays. We will start from the top and work our way down, starting with the region nearest Acton Lake.