Tag Archives: Streams

West Branch of the Rio Java

Some images of the West Branch of Rio Java.

This branch drains primary forest, and is rich in macroinvertebrate diversity, but doesn’t appear to have fish. In 2013, David surveyed this stream for fish, but did not discover any, and this year, Jackalyn collected macroinvertebrates using a D-net and immediately found a couple of new taxonomic groups she had previously not sampled.

The stream is steep, which likely prevents fish dispersal, and it’s bedrock substrate isn’t forgiving when the near-daily rains fill the banks.

Mel’s litter bag collection

Mel’s experiment involved collecting litter of two species and distributing litter bags in backwater areas along a Rio Java at Las Cruces and monitoring decomposition of the litter.  Here are some photographs of her second and last collection period.  Mel was interested in examining macroinvertebrate communities associated with decomposing leaf litter, so she carefully removed litter bags with a colander and transported the bags to the lab for processing in plastic bags.  Daniel Bird assisted in this collection. Mel plans to present her data at some meetings, including SACNES, which she’s receiving funding to attend in October.