U-High Creek Water Quality

The question being looked into is “What is the water quality of the U-High creek, based on invertebrates found in the U-High Creek? “Dissolved oxygen is oxygen mixed with water. The range to measure how much dissolved oxygen is in a solution is 1-14 milligrams per liter. This is important because fish and other organisms in the ocean breathe off of dissolved oxygen. Phosphorus is used to measure the relative acidity of solutions such as water. The range for pH is measured in 0-14 scale. 0-6 is unhealthy, 7 is neutral, and 8-14 is healthy. Nitrogen is an element that helps invertebrates survive because it has special proteins that help them grow. Nitrogen then enters as ammonia. The range of nitrogen ammonia should be between 1.3 and 2.2 mg/L at all times.
They are pollution tolerant, moderately pollution tolerant, and pollution intolerant. Lots of organisms in the pollution tolerant group can indicate poor water quality, since the organisms can tolerate pollution. A large amount of organisms in the moderately tolerant group can indicate fair water quality. Many organisms in the pollution intolerant group can show good water quality. The groups are based off of their tolerance to organic nutrient pollution. Ecologists take samples of these invertebrates. A big group or absence of a certain invertebrate can help determine water quality. A healthy river has many different types of invertebrates feeding in many different ways. Diversity is a characteristic of stable, healthy ecosystems. If the water quality is low some organisms will not be able to live successfully, therefore the ecosystem will not have as much diversity, and the ecosystem will not be as healthy(River Watch). The sun is an important part of an ecosystem because energy flows from plants to each level of the food chain.(River Watch) Many things contribute into a healthy ecosystem including diversity and energy