we did a study site in the Coquitlam river and the pond behind the school, to test the water quality of the river and pond and to find the species of invertebrates found in those bodies of water.

   

In the river the water quality was good it was at a 89.76% out of 100%. This value shows that the river is a very healthy environment with clean water, and is packed full of all the components that go into a healthy aquatic environment and is probably rich with different species of lots of invertebrates.  In the river we found a water . most of what we found was around the banks of the river but the small shrimp like creature along with the caddisfly larvae were just resting just beneath the surface of the water. The snails were also found when we rolled over a log and look inside the crevices. The class found most of the same thing but one group found an abnormally large invertebrate that we were not able to identify.

In the pond the water quality was also good, it was a surprising 74.14%. I saw surprising just because the water in the pond is a very mucky brown and the pond tends to give off this gut retching smell that makes you wonder if their are humans remains at the bottom. anyways, this value shows that the water is a medium to good environment for aquatic invertebrates. it probably has lots of different creatures in its underwater ecosystem but it probably wont be as rich with different species as say a water body with a water quality index value of say 90%. In the pond we found 2 fish, one dead bug that we could not identify, two alderfly larvae and three mayfly larvae. we found most of these things around the edges of the pond but we did find one fish around the base muck of the pond. The class found all the same things plus a pretty big fish and two leeches!

I think water quality is related to the diversity and number of invertebrates living in that water body because all species of invertebrates require different levels of water  quality in order to survive. For example in good water quality there are a diverse amount of species living in that habitat because it provides a healthy living space with all the needs for survival and nutrition. A medium to worse water quality can only provide hospitality  for a certain amount of species that don`t require all nutrients and can survive on the food that is in that ecosystem.

I thought these activities were not only fun and interesting but it gave me a chance to connect with my peers and get close with lots of the other students involved in that class. I  think that this activity was a great way to introduce us to the topic and give us a chance to experience what it would be like to be a scientist who did that specific work for a living. I learned how to properly record and research about species of invertebrates and I also learned just how different these two water bodies were and a better understanding of whats living in our backyard. I think in order to make these activities more meaningful we could nurse or create a new habitat for the invertebrates and see how well they do in a makeshift environment to give us a chance to really work close with these amazing little creatures that i didn’t even know existed until about a week ago.