Charles River Lab Report

Diversity in the Charles River

(Anything in parentheses is optional unless you are planning to do a follow up lab on the water itself)

How does location affect macro invertebrate diversity in the Charles River?

Hypothesis: I believe that species diversity will not change as we move closer to the ocean.

Introduction: Biodiversity can be seen as “the variety of life” (https://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Biodiversity.aspx). Biodiversity can be observed on a large scale, such as global diversity. Biodiversity can also be observed on a very small scale, such as in a lake, or a tidal pool. Biodiversity is important because it provides us and the environment with a lot of important things. For example, biodiversity provides us with

Procedure:

Collect 5 medium-sized rocks from location A (right across the bridge by Newman)

Count the amount of each different kind of invertebrate on each rock and write down on the notepad.

Throw rocks back into river

(Measure temperature of river at location A 6 times and write down)

(Fill up three bottles of water at location A)

Walk downstream for 5-10 minutes

Repeat steps 1-5 for location B

Repeat steps 1-6 for location

The average diversity of location A was 1.89, location B was 2.08, and C was 1.92. However, location B may have inaccurate data. On 3 out of the 5 rocks, it was impossible to measure the diversity, because a lack of species on the rock caused the denominator of the symposia’s diversity index to be 0, leading to the reading of NA, as it is not possible to divide by 0. That meant only 2 measurements could be averaged for location B, possibly leading to inaccurate results, which would explain the spike in diversity at that location. Upon further analysis of the water collected in the follow up lab, it was also discovered that water pH and salinity did not change as we went downstream either. In addition, it was found that the Charles River is very polluted. The existence of midges and other worms prove nothing as these are group 3 macro invertebrates that are very tolerant to pollution and can exist in almost any kind of water. However, the existence of scuds shows something different, as this is a group 2 macro invertebrate, meaning it is only fairly tolerant to pollution. However, due to the relatively small amount of these and the lack of any group 1 macro invertebrates, it can be shown that the Charles River is very