Macroinvertebrate Sampling

Ten Towns Committee
Macroinvertebrate Sampling Project - 2000-2005

Macroinvertebrate sampling provides a relatively easy way to assess the water quality of a stream. The types and numbers of macroinvertebrates (mostly insect larvae/nymphs) that form the biological community at a particular stream location are shaped by both the nature of the stream and the quality of water that drains into the stream.

During the 1990's, an annual survey of macroinvertebrate communities inhabiting the 5 streams flowing into the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge was conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Morris County Soil Conservation District and Somerset-Union Soil Conservation District (SCS).



	Dr. Pollock and assistant

When these agencies were unable to continue the survey beyond the 1999 season, the Ten Towns Committee contracted Professor Lee Pollock of Drew University to continue and expand the project. Professor Pollock had already accompanied the SCS survey team to their sites to develop laboratory exercises for his students and several years of parallel data had been collected. This allowed a seamless transition in the sampling protocol which Professor Pollock has continued annually since June of 2000.

Professor Pollock has been teaching aquatic ecology at Drew for thirty years. He has an extensive background in the identification of invertebrates in general, and marine ones in particular, with this work published in A Practical Guide to the Marine Animals of Northeastern North America (Rutgers University Press, 1998). His published primary research deals with the systematics and ecology of the microscopic members of a phylum known as Tardigrada or “water bears” which live in marine beaches. He is producing an internet-based Pictorial Key to the Families of Mayflies of Northern New Jersey, which he intends to be the first of a series of such identification aids for students and volunteer citizen monitors.

Professor Pollock is happy to receive comments or questions about this work via email.

Contents (Each file opens in a new window)

Introduction and Methods	html	pdf
Table 1 - Sampling Locations	html
Figure 1 - Sampling Locations Map	html	pdf
2005 Study	html
2004 Study	html
2003 Study	html	pdf
2002 Study	html
2001 Study	html
2000 Study	html
Macroinvertebrate Sampling, 2000 (legacy report)	html

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"Introduction and methods PDF"

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"Sampling Location Map PDF"

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"2003 Study PDF"

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"2002 Study PDF"

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"2001 Study PDF"

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"2000 Study PDF"

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"2000 Study - Legacy Report"

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