15 enthusiastic participants helped MCMC WaterWatch collect data on the current populations and species diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates (waterbugs) at 2 sites within the Merri Creek catchment this autumn.
Surveying waterbug diversity and population gives us a clearer indication of the current ecological health of our local creeks. The more species diversity and populations, the healthier the creek. Waterbugs are also an important food source for many of our waterway critters including rakali, platypus, frogs and fish.
Participants were trained in safe waterbug sampling techniques (WaterWatch uses the live pick approach which means we put the waterbugs back in their homes alive after the survey), and identification of waterbugs, often times down to Family, Genus and even species! This is thanks to the ALT method developed by our friends from the National WaterBug Blitz (tag).
Unfortunately the final results weren’t great news. We had a SIGNAL score https://www.waterbugblitz.org.au/signalt of 3.4 which signifies that the site is severely affected by pollution. Coupled with low instream aquatic vegetation, this means it is very hard for large populations of waterbugs to survive and thrive. The results in detail as well as other sites we have surveyed over the past 5 years can be viewed on our Water Quality reports page: https://www.mcmc.org.au/environmental-education/waterwatch/waterwatch-water-quality-summaries
This recent survey provides more evidence that the work on reducing polluted stormwater inflows and increasing instream and creek bank habitat must continue.
Big thanks to the City of Darebin and Melbourne Water for funding these events as well as the important reports and data storage.
