The Streamers: The Effect of Environmental Stress on Vulnerable Streams

1. The Streamers:The Effect of Environmental Stress on Vulnerable Streams Elizabeth Nellums, Mark Momper, Craig Riffle, Jesse Murphy

2. Introduction Our group set out to explore the way that drought affects streams that are damaged from pollution and compare them to undamaged streams that have also been negatively impacted by drought.

3. Hypothesis Our hypothesis is that the diversity of both streams will be statistically lowered due to the drought, but that Collins Run, a stream that was affected by human development, will be statistically more damaged than Harkers Run, which flows through a preserve.

4. Purpose The purpose of our experiment is to measure the effects the recent drought has had, using diversity as an indicator of health. We will compare the data we collect to the research done by the Fishbusters lab group in 2001, which acts as our control, since it gives us the streams health when there was no drought. The Fishbusters lab group measured the diversity of fish populations in Collins and Harkers Run and then compared the data between the two.

5. Relevance of Research Question “Once the causes of decline are addressed, the ecological resiliency . . . takes over, often leading to the dramatic recovery of the system.” We are testing whether or not this is true. We are seeing if damaged ecosystems are able to suffer through environmental stress.

6. Specific Predictions - Rainfall significantly affects the diversity in an ecosystem. Due to the drought this year, the fish diversity in both Collins and Harkers Run should be less compared to a non-drought year. - As found in the Fishbusters study, the diversity in a damaged ecosystem is considerably less than in a relatively undisturbed ecosystem (2001). This should still hold true for this year. - We predict that the diversity in the disturbed stream, Collins Run, will be more affected by this year’s drought than the undisturbed stream, Harkers Run, due to human influence.

7. Methods • Went to both • streams and captured • Fish using an • Electric fish shocker. • Also went to • Streams and sifted • Through dirt to find • Invertebrates.

9. Collins Run

11. Harkers Run

13. Results

14. Collins Run Fish Sample Centeral Stoneroller - 50 Emerald Shiner - 1 Bluntnosed Minnow - 39 Orange Throat Darters - 7 Creek Chub - 27 Green Sunfish - 2 Blacknosed Dace - 35 Bluegill Sunfish - 1 Silverjaw Minnow - 5 Striped Shiner - 21 Whitesucker - 7 Golden Redhorse Sucker - 1 Spotfin Shiner - 74

15. Harkers Run Sample Northern Hogsucker - 3 Carp Sucker -1 Sliverjaw Minnow - 4 Green Sunfish - 4 Golden Redhorse - 1 Whitesucker - 7 Blacknosed Dace - 38 Chubs - 105 Striped Shiner - 12 Central Stoneroller - 85 Mimic Shiner - 2 Bluntnose - 57 Spotfin Shiner - 4 Orange throat Darters - 7

16. Charts and Graphs

17. Harkers Run Present

18. Collins Run Present

19. Index of Similarity = .889 • Describes how similar the two measured streams are to each other. • 0=Not Similar, 1=Similar • Shannon Index of General Diversity • Harkers = .7901 • Collins = .9076 • Describes how diverse the stream is. 0=Not Diverse, 1=Very Diverse • Index of Dominance • Harkers = .2135 • Collins = .1649 • Describes how much the stream is dominated by individual species.

20. Present & Past Comparison

21. Shannon Index of General Diversity • Fishbusters: Harkers = .888 • Fishbusters: Collins= .784 • “Streamers”: Harkers = .790 • “Streamers”: Collins = .908

26. Conclusion Despite our predictions streams in the year following a drought are not less diverse than in the past. This may indicate that disturbance increases diversity. The unhealthy stream became more diverse, while the healthy stream became less diverse.