{"id":4716,"date":"2021-06-20T11:04:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-20T16:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2021-06-20T11:06:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-20T16:06:40","slug":"urban-stream-ecology-watershed-development-negatively-impacts-aquatic-insect-diversity-and-ecosystem-health-in-urban-rivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/?p=4716","title":{"rendered":"Urban Stream Ecology: Watershed development negatively impacts aquatic insect diversity and ecosystem health in urban rivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Author: <\/span><b>Xitlali Ramirez<\/b><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mentors: <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jonathan Behrens, Emily Bernhardt, PhD<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Department of Biology<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Impervious surfaces in urban development dramatically increase river discharge and contaminant presence in urban rivers, thereby creating a turbulent environment for aquatic insects and the river ecosystem. Durham\u2019s Ellerbe Creek (EC) and New Hope Creek (NHC) watersheds vary significantly in urbanization, with EC being % developed and NHC being 7.9% developed, however the effects of this urbanization on aquatic insects and river ecosystem health have yet to be measured in Durham. I hypothesize that overall aquatic insect biodiversity and the abundance of pollution-sensitive orders will be lower at EC than at NHC.\u00a0 I calculate the biodiversity and abundance of aquatic insects at two EC sites and one NHC site using sticky traps and make a qualitative water quality assessment. I compare that data to precipitation and discharge data collected by the USGS and our sensors.\u00a0 EC\u2019s Glenn Stone site has the highest aquatic insect abundance among the three sites. However, NHC\u2019s site shows more diversity and more resilient species among the sites, suggesting that pollution is highly likely at EC and highly unlikely at NHC. Further quantitative assessments of water quality and river ecosystem health at these sites are needed to inform urban river conservation in Durham.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Xitlali Ramirez Mentors: Jonathan Behrens, Emily Bernhardt, PhD Department of Biology Impervious surfaces in urban development dramatically increase river discharge and contaminant presence in urban rivers, thereby creating a turbulent environment for aquatic insects and the river ecosystem. Durham\u2019s Ellerbe Creek (EC) and New Hope Creek (NHC) watersheds vary significantly in urbanization, with EC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43994,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[658455,1,658461],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bsurf-2021","category-uncategorized","category-week-6-bsurf-2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/43994"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4717,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions\/4717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.duke.edu\/adhoc_org_trinity_hhr_fellows\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}