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Stream Ecology

Learning Experience 4

Big Ideas

  • The abundance and diversity of biological organisms is essential to the health of the waterway.
  • Macro-invertebrate populations, along with fish populations and microorganism populations can serve as bio-indicators that can indicate the health of the waterway.
  • The stream community, the riparian buffer, the wetlands and forests are ecologically interdependent.

Summary

Abundance and diversity are key indicators of a healthy stream. Students will use real world data and research findings to analyze the health of stream communities and illustrate the concept of ecological interdependence.

Engage

Students will explore the idea of interdependence by creating a community web.

Directions are described on the unit slide deck.

This exercise starts by connecting community members in a web using a ball of yar. After the web is created, community members begin to “leave town” dropping their place in the web. There may be a few students who realize that they can adapt, but most will leave town. Depending on how a student describes how they may adapt, you may ‘allow’ them to remain in town on the web.

Explore and Explain

Students will research this question:

What does (this organism) depend on? What depends on this organism?

The links/resources below are linked in the unit slide deck

Delaware River Estuary Species and Fact Sheets .

Research Guide for Note Taking

To help develop the idea of interdependence and food-webs, make sure that the organisms chosen or assigned to each student are representative of the diversity of the food web.

Focus the students on how to differentiate between mammals, birds, insects, amphibians, fish, worms, etc

After they finish their research, they may use the Presentation Planner to help them organize their research and design their project.

Take a few minutes  to explain new concepts: Macro-invertebrates, Native, non-native, Invasive, Tolerance to Pollution, Functional Feeding Groups or Feeding Type, Range, Class, etc.

Elaborate

Extension

A Trophic Cascade

View How Wolves Can Alter the Course of Rivers.  In this video, George Monbiot poetically explains how reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park after a 70-year absence set off a “trophic cascade” that altered the movement of deer, sent trees soaring to new heights, attracted scores of new animals to the area (think: beavers, rabbits, bears, bald eagles and more), and stabilized the banks of rivers making them less susceptible to erosion.

Compare the re-introduction of wolves in Yellowstone to the return of the Shad to the Schuylkill.  How does the return of the Shad affect the ecology of the Schuylkill River? Explore how the loss of organisms have changed an ecosystem. (Example: Research how the loss of the buffalo affected the grasslands ecosystem.)

Teacher Support

Essential Question: What is the Value of Water?

Guiding Questions: 

Engage:
What is community?
Who are the members of our community?
Explore and Explain:
Who are the members of our local river/creek community?
How are they interdependent on one another?
What evidence demonstrates ecological interdependence between organisms in the stream and organisms in the riparian buffer and/or wetlands?
Elaborate:
How do we measure the health of our local river/creek?
What are the indicators of river/creek health? (abundance and diversity are two indicators we will explore, presence of micro and macro invertebrates, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish)
What can be learned about the health of the Schuylkill River from the Fish Data over the 10-year period?
What inferences can be drawn about the comparative health of the Wissahickon?
What do the macro-invertebrates tell us about the health of the WIsshahickon?
How can we know about the health of our local river/creek?
Why are abundance and diversity used as indicators of stream ecology?

Students will be able to:

Express how members of our community are interdependent on one another.

Conduct and present research on native, non-native, and invasive species, and discuss the impact of each on the health and balance of the aquatic ecosystem.

Express how organisms in the stream community interact with and are ecologically interdependent with the organisms in other natural aspects of the watershed (riparian buffer, wetlands, forests).

Engage in a real or virtual macro-invertebrate study in order to determine the health of a waterways

Use real data in order to determine the biological diversity and abundance of fish species in the waterway (because diversity assures stability and resilience in the system)

Explain how we measure stream ecology health and why abundance and the bio-diversity in the web can be used to assess the health of the waterway by addressing the following questions:
– How can we know about the health of our local river/creek?
– Why are abundance and diversity used as indicators of a healthy stream ecology?

Engage Activity:

Engage Activity (Community Web)

Explore & Explain Activity:

EXPLORE AND EXPLAIN (RESEARCH STREAM COMMUNITY ORGANISMS)

Elaborate Activity:

MICROSCOPIC LIFE STUDY:

Schedule a Field Trip to the Fairmount Water Works for hands-on water sampling activity “We Drink the River” and more

MACROINVERTEBRATE AND FISH STUDY:

A Field Trip visit to an environmental organization for a macroinvertebrate study  (materials are generally provided by the environmental organization)​

Virtual Field Trip for Bio-Indicator Studies of Fish and Macro-Invertebrates

STREAM COMMUNITY MEMBERS (BASIC)

Adaptation (noun) A physical or behavioral change or process of change by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment

Consumer (noun) Animal

Decomposer (noun) Organism that helps to break dead things down into soil

Plankton (noun) The small and microscopic plant and animal organisms that float or drift in sea or fresh water

Predator (noun) An animal that preys on others

Producer (noun) Green plant

STREAM COMMUNITY MEMBERS (ADVANCED)

Abiotic (adjective) Physical, not biological; Not derived from living organisms

Biotic (adjective) Of, relating to, or resulting from living things, especially in their ecological relations

Detritus (noun) Decaying bits of leaves that are covered with fungi and bacteria

Filterer/Collector (noun) Organism that filters water and catches or traps organic microscopic matter (fresh water clam, black fly larva, some caddisfly larvae)

Scraper/Grazer (noun) Organisms that scrape and graze upon algae from surfaces in the water. Examples: Water Penny, Mayfly nymph

Shredder (noun) Organism that shreds and eats decaying leaf matter. Examples: Stonefly nymph, scuds

DIVERSITY AS INDICATOR (BASIC)

Biodiversity (noun)The variety of life in the world or in a particular habitat or ecosystem

Community (noun) A group of organisms that live together and interact

Ecology (noun) A branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments

Fish Census (noun) Fish Count

Macro-Invertebrate (noun) Organism that can be seen with the naked eye, but has no backbone

Pollution Intolerant (adjective Not capable of living in polluted waters

Pollution Tolerant (adjective) Capable of living in polluted waters

Species (noun) A group of living organism consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding

Waterway (noun) Body of water such as river, stream, creek

DIVERSITY AS INDICATOR (ADVANCED)

Diatom (noun) A single-celled alga that has a cell wall of silica

Invasive Species (noun) Non-native organism that does harm to our environment

Native (adjective) Describes an animal or plant of indigenous origin or growth

Niche (noun) The job or role of an organism in its environment; how it fits in with other organisms in the food web

  • Use real data in order to determine the biological diversity and abundance of fish species in the waterway. Engage in a real or virtual micro and macro-invertebrate study in order to determine the health of a waterway.Distinguish between native, non-native, and invasive species, and discuss the impact of each on the health and balance of the aquatic eco-system.
  • Analyze data related to Fish Counts and Macro-Invertebrate Studies:
    • What can be learned about the health of the Schuylkill River from the Fish Data over the 10 year period? Compare the Fish Data from the Schuylkill River to that of the Fish Data in the Wissahickon in 2005 (River Fish Data). What inferences can be drawn about the comparative health of the rivers?
  • Read the Watershed Overview from the Wissahickon Creek Watershed Comprehensive Characterization Report 2005.
    • What do the macro-invertebrates tell us about the health of the Wissahickon? If these data examples are too complex, have students analyze examples from the Macroinvertebrates.org webiste and the Fish Bin activity.
  • Conduct and present research on native, non-native and invasive species and discuss the impact of each on the health and balance of the aquatic eco-system.
  • Journal Entry — Address the question: how are members of our community interdependent on one another? 
  • Using notes from their Watershed Journal and the Research Guide for Note Taking students can make a poster or a 3-D model of their organism and present their results. (Presentation Planner)

Explain how organisms in the stream community interact with and are ecologically interdependent with the organisms and their environment in other natural aspects of the watershed (riparian buffer, wetlands, forests).

  • Ask students to answer the following prompt question: How can we know about the health of our local river/creek? 
  • Have students explain why the abundance and bio-diversity in the stream ecology is used to assess the health of the waterway by explaining how we measure stream ecology health and how it is used to assess the health of the waterway
  • Return to the Essential Question “What is the Value of Water” and share their ideas after completing their analysis. Then look back at their initial response to the same question (in their journals). Comparing the two responses, ask students to write a final reflection on what they have learned and how their relationship with water is changing as a result of this unit.

PA STEELS

3.4.6-8.E Environmental Literacy Skills: Collect, analyze, and interpret environmental data to describe a local environment.

Related Standards

NGSS

MS-LS2-1  Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics – Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.

MS.LS.2-2  Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics – Construct an explanation that predicts patterns of interactions among organisms across multiple ecosystems.

Education for Sustainability

EfS C.31 The Dynamics of Systems and Change – Reasonably predict intended consequences and reasonably predict and prepare for unintended consequences.

EfS F.2  Natural Laws and Ecological Principles – Explain the nature of ecosystems and biomes, their health and interdependence within the biosphere.

Enduring Understanding 6: Diversity makes our lives possible.
Enduring Understanding 4: Recognize and protect the commons

Common Core

ELA

W.6.2  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

W.6.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question, drawing on several sources and refocusing the inquiry when appropriate.

Student Materials

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