Tailwater refers to waters located immediately downstream from a hydraulic structure, such as a dam, spillway, bridge or culvert. Generally measured and reported as the average water depth downstream of a hydraulic structure, tailwater can vary based on the outlet from the structure as well as downstream influences that may restrict or advance the usual flow of water from the structure. The creation of a tailwater will have significant impacts on both the abiotic and biotic conditions of the waterway.
A bioindicator is any species or group of species whose function, population, or status can reveal the qualitative status of the environment. The most common indicator species are animals. For example, copepods and other small water crustaceans that are present in many water bodies can be monitored for changes that may indicate a problem within their ecosystem. Bioindicators can tell us about the cumulative effects of different pollutants in the ecosystem and about how long a problem may have been present, which physical and chemical testing cannot.
An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem found in and around a body of water, in contrast to land-based terrestrial ecosystems. Aquatic ecosystems contain communities of organisms—aquatic life—that are dependent on each other and on their environment. The two main types of aquatic ecosystems are marine ecosystems and freshwater ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems may be lentic ; lotic ; and wetlands.
Aquatic biomonitoring is the science of inferring the ecological condition of rivers, lakes, streams, and wetlands by examining the organisms that live there. While aquatic biomonitoring is the most common form of biomonitoring, any ecosystem can be studied in this manner.
The biological monitoring working party (BMWP) is a procedure for measuring water quality using families of macroinvertebrates as biological indicators.
The Hydropsychidae are a family-level taxon consisting of net-spinning caddisflies. Hydropsychids are common among much of the world's streams, and a few species occupy the shorelines of freshwater lakes. Larvae of the hydropsychids construct nets at the open ends of their dwellings which are responsible for their "net-spinning caddisfly" common name.
An index of biological integrity (IBI), also called an index of biotic integrity, is a scientific tool typically used to identify and classify water pollution problems, although there have been some efforts to apply the idea to terrestrial environments. An IBI associates anthropogenic influences on a water body with biological activity in the water body, and is formulated using data developed from biosurveys. Biological integrity is associated with how "pristine" an environment is and its function relative to the potential or original state of an ecosystem before human alterations were imposed. Biological integrity is built on the assumption that a decline in the values of an ecosystem's functions are primarily caused by human activity or alterations. The more an environment and its original processes are altered, then by definition, the less biological integrity it holds for the community as a whole. If these processes were to change over time naturally, without human influence, the integrity of the ecosystem would remain intact. Similar to the concept of ecosystem health, the integrity of the ecosystem relies heavily on the processes that occur within it because those determine which organisms can inhabit an area and the complexities of their interactions. Deciding which of the many possible states or conditions of an ecosystem is appropriate or desirable is a political or policy decision.
Macrobenthos consists of the organisms that live at the bottom of a water column and are visible to the naked eye. In some classification schemes, these organisms are larger than 1 mm; in another, the smallest dimension must be at least 0.5 mm. They include polychaete worms, pelecypods, anthozoans, echinoderms, sponges, ascidians, crustaceans.
A biotic index is a scale for showing the quality of an environment by indicating the types and abundances of organisms present in a representative sample of the environment. It is often used to assess the quality of water in marine and freshwater ecosystems. Numerous biotic indices have been created to account for the indicator species found in each region of study. The concept of the biotic index was developed by Cherie Stephens in an effort to provide a simple measurement of stream pollution and its effects on the biology of the stream.
DNA barcoding is a method of species identification using a short section of DNA from a specific gene or genes. The premise of DNA barcoding is that by comparison with a reference library of such DNA sections, an individual sequence can be used to uniquely identify an organism to species, just as a supermarket scanner uses the familiar black stripes of the UPC barcode to identify an item in its stock against its reference database. These "barcodes" are sometimes used in an effort to identify unknown species or parts of an organism, simply to catalog as many taxa as possible, or to compare with traditional taxonomy in an effort to determine species boundaries.
Pollution-induced community tolerance (PICT) is an approach to measuring the response of pollution-induced selective pressures on a community. It is an eco-toxicological tool that approaches community tolerance to pollution from a holistic standpoint. Community Tolerance can increase in one of three ways: physical adaptations or phenotypic plasticity, selection of favorable genotypes, and the replacement of sensitive species by tolerant species in a community.
South Branch Roaring Creek is a tributary of Roaring Creek in Columbia County and Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 16.8 miles (27.0 km) long. The upper reaches of the creek are located in Weiser State Forest, between Big Mountain and Little Mountain. The creek is home to some trout and is considered a high-quality coldwater fishery. The Chemung Formation occurs in the creek's watershed. The watershed is 25 square miles in area.
Green Run is a tributary of Spring Brook in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 4.7 miles (7.6 km) long and flows through Spring Brook Township, Roaring Brook Township, and Scranton. The watershed of the stream has an area of 4.32 square miles (11.2 km2). It is considered to be Class A Wild Trout Waters throughout its entire length. Numerous macroinvertebrate taxa also inhabit the stream. The surficial geology in the vicinity of the stream's lower reaches mainly consists of Wisconsinan Till, bedrock, and Boulder Colluvium.
SPEARpesticides is a trait based biological indicator system for streams which quantitatively links pesticide contamination to the composition of invertebrate communities. The approach uses species traits that characterize the ecological requirements posed by pesticide contamination in running waters. Therefore, it is highly specific and only slightly influenced by other environmental factors. SPEARpesticides is linked to the quality classes of the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD)
Crab Run is a tributary of Mahanoy Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 2.5 miles (4.0 km) long and flows through Barry Township. The watershed of the stream has an area of 3.50 square miles (9.1 km2). Despite being listed as impaired by abandoned mine drainage, the stream is not impacted by this; no mining has been done in its watershed. However, some stream reaches in its watershed do experience agricultural impacts. The stream is not far from the Western Middle Anthracite Field. Its watershed is designated as a Coldwater Fishery and a Migratory Fishery. As of 2001, the stream contains macroinvertebrates, but no fish.
The Fonteyn Kill is a 1.5-kilometer-long (0.93 mi) urban stream flowing through Dutchess County, New York, onto the campus of Vassar College, and into the Casperkill. The stream was first on land inhabited by the native Wappinger band before being transferred to the Dutch and then the British. A mill was built along the kill by 1714 and the stream's presence influenced Matthew Vassar's decision to locate his college in the area. The artificial Vassar Lake lies midway down the Fonteyn Kill and was once used for ice skating and boating.
Macroinvertebrate Community Index (MCI) is an index used in New Zealand to measure the water quality of fresh water streams. The presence or lack of macroinvertebrates such as insects, worms and snails in a river or stream can give a biological indicator on the health of that waterway. The MCI assigns a number to each species of macroinvertebrate based on the sensitivity of that species to pollution. The index then calculates an average score. A higher score on the MCI generally indicates a more healthy stream.
The saprobic system is a tool to measure water quality, and specifically it deals with the capacity of a water body to self-regulate and degrade organic matter. The saprobic system derives from so-called saprobes — organisms that thrive through degradation of organic matter, which is called saprotrophic nutrition.
Diastrophus nebulosus is a species that forms galls. Its common name is the blackberry knot gall wasp. Its host plant is Rubus flagellaris.
Hydrochara simula is a species of water scavenger beetle. It is found in the Great Lakes region of North America.
