The Importance of Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality

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The Importance of Macroinvertebrates and Water Quality Introduction The Appomattox River serves as a wide array of sources to Virginians. This river provides water to many counties in the area such as Chesterfield and Prince George’s county. The river makes it easy to obtain water and purify it from the river; also it is convenient for the surrounding counties because the purified water is close to these counties and can be sold to the populations of the neighboring towns (Martin 2010). The reservoir provides the capacity for 96 million gallons per day of water to Petersburg, Colonial Heights, Dinwiddie, Prince George, and portions of Chesterfield County. The Appomattox River also serves as a food source, entertainment, and sport value such as fishing to Virginians. The river also flows into other main bodies of water such as the James River. This river serves as a home to many species of animals and plants, specifically in the lower part of the river where many nutrients gather. Methods During our collection of macroinvertebrates, we gathered many class of Insecta and other type of organisms. First we used this protocol from (James Anderson, J. S.). In our process of collecting of collecting these species, we had to follow these steps. One member of the group stood downstream with a large net (0.3048 x 0.6096 meters) pressed against the riverbed, while another member stood 50cm upstream and disturbed the rocks by kicking them. Once all the debris passed through the net, in order to collect the samples, we had to (Martin, 2010) scoop that sample into a corner and rinse the net with fresh water, and scoop it into a container. The process was repeated several times with different group members. After all the samples were collected, we then brought the samples into the lab. In the lab we took (Ophardt, 2003) two large Petri dishes and sat them on top of white

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