Simple Biomonitoring

Sarah DeBaggis sampling a Primary Headwater Stream in Introductory Zoology at Hiram College

Photo: Biology 141 Class Fall 2006

The Need for Monitoring Sources of Water Leading Into Rivers

The State of Ohio recognizes the need to monitor not only water quality in large streams, but also the need to monitor the sources of water leading into larger streams and Rivers.  The Ohio EPA has developed tools for monitoring landscapes other than large rivers.  Wetlands, tied to water resources are one of the most endangered landscapes in Ohio's 21st century due to uncontrolled rural development.  The quality of wetlands can now be quickly determined using the same principals of biomonitoring that were originally applied to streams.  More recently the State has developed a way to monitor small headwater streams leading into rivers.  These headwaters, often dried up gullies in August, are important features of the landscape affecting water quality.  The principal behind monitoring these Primary Headwater Habitats is the same as that behind monitoring rivers - by understanding both the habitat and the organisms that are found or that are not found in a habitat, we then can infer something about the quality of the environment to support life. 

Water Quality and You

All of us can learn to interpret the quality of the environment by monitoring the quality of the life around us.  To do this we first have to learn to recognize adaptations of plants and animals to specific environmental conditions.  We then have to learn to recognize the signs of stress in these organism when environmental conditions change.  As we do this, we develop an appreciation of nature from both a rational scientific viewpoint as well as from an aesthetic humanistic viewpoint.  By learning to recognize patterns, we learn how to improve the environment for supporting the life around us as well as for improving our own lives.  We seek to find patterns in what at first seems to be chaos and in doing so, we begin to understand the unity of all nature.

Dennis J. Taylor

taylordj at hiram.edu

last updated 28 November 2007