Benthic
Benthic, the overall sample of small aquatic organisms, helps indicate the long term health of various bodies of water. Because they are small and need something to cling on to for survival, benthic organisms can only be found in the sediment at the bottom of the rivers. Benthic organisms are extremely important to be tested because they are a foundational part of the food chain and help to represent and identify the ecological conditions and health of any body of water.
Testing Protocol
In order for our Environmental Statistics class to collect benthic, we had to go through a long process. We took a large yellow net, placed it in a location where the water is moving quickly enough to trap the organisms, and stirred up the bed of each river with our feet and hands.
The goal was to stir up a very small area of the river bottom so that bugs could be freed and float into the net. Once the net was removed from the water, members of our class counted and kept track of each organism. We most commonly found Stoneflies, Caddisflies, and Netspinners. The largest organism we found was a four inch hellgrammite.