Why does FLOW do Stream Quality Monitoring?
Stream Quality Monitoring (SQM). Sounds important, right? But what does it actually mean? Our FLOW SQM teams play an important role in monitoring the health of our watershed, through checking in on a handful of our tributary streams each summer. This includes checking for macroinvertebrates and other critters who live in the water, taking some water chemistry samples, and looking at the landscape of the stream and the surrounding area. FLOW currently monitors about 16 streams, with 42 stream sites being completed each sampling season. Our SQM volunteers complete a training day with the FLOW team to go over our sampling methods, get split into teams, and are assigned sampling sites that they will complete over the sampling season. Sampling generally takes place between June and September, with each site being visited at least once during the season.
What are we looking for while sampling? First, we look for macroinvertebrates and other stream critters (see photos). Macroinvertebrates are water bugs that like to live under rocks and other areas in rivers, and often are sensitive to changes in their habitat, such as a change in the sediment type, or any pollution that may end up in the river. Some macroinvertebrates are more sensitive than others to these changes.
These stoneflies are great indicators of a clean river
This is exactly why macroinvertebrates are a great indicator of how healthy a stream is. If the conditions aren’t right for them to live in that area, we won’t find them there, leading us to think about what might be wrong with the stream and watershed around it.
After looking for macroinvertebrates, we take some water chemistry samples. We check the temperature, total dissolved solids, conductivity, salinity, chloride, and nitrate/nitrite levels in the streams. We do this through test strips and using an ExStik. These measurements allow us to see if there is anything largely concerning about the water quality in these streams.
Finally, we complete an assessment of the landscape in and around the stream. We check to see what type of sediment is at the bottom of the stream, how steep the banks of the stream are, how curvy or straight the stream is, and what vegetation is growing around the stream. This assessment helps us understand how good the habitat is for critters in and around the stream.
Macroinvertebrate training
Why is all of this sampling important? Because our streams can be a very good indicator of how healthy different areas of our watershed are! The larger Olentangy Watershed is broken into smaller watershed areas,
following the streams or tributaries that drain into the Olentangy River. Because we monitor these tributaries, we are able to notice differences in the health of the streams from year to year, and if there is something that doesn’t look quite right, we can make a note of this and share it with the correct community partners and organizations. For instance, if a stream has great numbers of macroinvertebrates and water chemistry levels for multiple years, and then drops drastically the next year, we can talk to the government agencies that work in that area to make them aware of these issues, and work to find the source of the problems. Since our sampling is conducted by volunteers, we can be a first watch for these areas, making sure that we alert the correct agencies to follow up on any concerns. When we can have more eyes on our tributaries, we can better help the general health of the Lower Olentangy Watershed!
If you’d like to get involved in learning more, feel free to visit our Stream Quality Monitoring page on our website, or keep an eye out for when we host Macrofest, our educational macroinvertebrate sampling day, in September!