This summer, I am working with the Bernhardt Lab, a lab focused on aquaterrestrial biogeochemistry. Essentially, this entails ecology, ecosystems, and ecotoxicology. My contribution to the lab is helping sample, count, and identify aquatic macroinvertebrates in local streams, creeks, and watersheds as bioindicators for water quality and stressors (like pollutants) present at different sites.
My project specifically concerns three different creeks, one of which is largely forested with minimal pollution, and the other two are more urbanized and polluted. Of these latter two, one is located before a waste water treatment plant, and the other is placed after the waste water treatment plant empties out its treated water. I will be counting and identifying aquatic insects from each of these sites with samples collected from the exact same area over all four seasons. The goal of my research is to identify insects from each of these different sites while also comparing which insects are present across the seasons.
Of course, there are limitations to this research. This is a descriptive study which relies more heavily on relativity in respect to reproducibility. The sampling and subsampling methods will be consistent so that I will be able to compare my results within the scope of my own research. In representing my data, I hope to analyze the number of insects present at each site across seasons, as well as their body size/density and biodiversity.
I am very excited for my project, as bugs can tell us a lot about the types of stressors present at different sites, especially ones so localized to one another. The health of our environment and the ecosystems around us are of the utmost importance, and I am very glad to be contributing to research efforts to improve this.
