Aquatic Invertebrates

In 2018, the hardscape construction of NCOS (North Campus Open Space), a restored wetland on the Northern border of COPR (Coal Oil Point Reserve), was completed; thus approximately doubling the overall size of the wetland and offering the rather unique opportunity of being able to compare the two side-by-side. Basic water quality and aquatic invertebrate monitoring of both sites were undertaken to better understand the dynamics of how a newly constructed wetland developed into an established wetland. The surprising result of this first year of monitoring is that COPR and NCOS were more or less equivalent in species richness and abundance, with the Shannon-Wiener Index giving a slight nod to NCOS for more diversity and Evenness in the data. Four taxa are the most significant contributors to the total taxa observed – Copepods, Ostracods, Cladocera, and Corixidae. Additionally, we found Chironomids, Ceratopogonidae, Ephydridae, and Nematodes in significant abundance. Sampling protocols were evaluated indicating that sampling in algae gives more than an order-of-magnitude greater abundance and diversity than in sampling in open water and that the Filtered Beaker method gives more precise species density information than the Sweep-Net method; when sampling at shallower depths where the Sweep-Net is not fully submerged. Additionally, the effect on other aquatic invertebrates of the use of VectoBac for mosquito abatement was looked at – indicating a minimum, if any, affect.