Table of Contents

• Appalachian Mountain Tops: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
• 1: Appalachia
• 2: Biodiversity Hotspots
• 3: But how did the coal get there?
• 4: How to destroy forest habitat
• 5: How to remove a mountain top
• 6: How to destroy stream habitat
• Measuring the effects
• 7: Measuring the effects of Mountaintop Removal
• 8: Measuring biodiversity
• 9: The rich and the dominant
• 10: EPT: In Search of a Few Good Species
• 11: Finding %EPT
• 12: Digging even deeper
• 13: Simpson's Dominance Index
• 14: Judges, show your scores
• 15: You be the scientist
• 16: How did you do?

 

Putting it all together

Let's see how we could use all of the things we've learned to analyze changes.

You have been charged with the task of analyzing the difference between two streams. The first is a pristine stream found in the lush deciduous eastern forests of Appalachia. The second is directly adjacent to a valley fill in a mining area. Several months ago, the mountain had its top removed, and pushed to fill the valley.  Your task is to compare the two sites, with what you know now, and determine the health of the streams.

Rollover the pictures below to sample the streams...

Looks like your partner had a chance to do some of the calculations, so you just need to fit in the extras.

	Pristine Site	Valley Fill Site
richness	18
%dominance		43%
%EPT
Simpson's Diversity	.18

 

Looks like your partner also left an outline of the report to be written, along with a brief note: "hey pardner, Sorry, I gotta go catch the last Lost episode. Think you could fill in the blanks? Can't wait for the year-end barbecue! "

Report on Stream X, Pre- and Post- Valley Fill. Date: Nov 2010

In June 2010, valley fill operations were undertaken just above stream X. We compared macroinvert samples from November 2009 ('pristine') and Nov 2010 ('valley fill') to determine the effect of valley fill on stream habitat.

The following comments compare the valley fill stream to the pristine stream.

Richness __(rose or fell?)_______ from ___ to ___, showing that _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

Percent dominance _________ from ___ to ___. Likewise, Simpson's Dominance ______ from _____ to _____. Most importantly, the dominant species has shifted from from _________ to _________, indicating _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ .

Percent %EPT _________ from ___ to ___, confirming _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _. _________ of the 11 EPT taxa at the pristine site were lost after valley fill, and _________ new EPT taxa were gained. Meanwhile, _________, which are very pollution tolerant, were found only after valley fill. Finally, while we found only _________ blackfly, chironomid, and mosquito larvae at the pristine site, we found _________after valley fill.

To conclude, valley fill appears to have _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _, and species found after valley are consistent with _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ water.