Executive Summary
Biomonitoring in the Quashnet River,
Mashpee
Mashpee High
School
Tom Hoppensteadt
The Mashpee High School Environmental Science students studied the watershed of the Quashnet River (also known as the Moonakis River) in Mashpee and Falmouth, MA. The river empties into Waquoit bay. It supports animals such as alewife, eels, brook trout, and herring. This river is vital to the sustainability of these animals. Macroinvertebrate sampling took place on March 4th, 2009, while the water chemistry testing took place on September 15th, 2008.
Specific water samples were tested for Dissolved Oxygen, temperature, pH, turbidity, and nutrients. The Water Quality Index (WQI) had to be weighted since certain parameters were not able to be measured. Our weighted WQI index was 73.4, which constitutes Good Water Quality.
Also observed were 362 macroinvertebrates within 20 families. This allowed an analysis of water quality for the river by considering published tolerance and intolerance values for these macroinvertebrate families. The macroinvertebrate testing found many organisms including: Caddisflies, Mayflies, Midges, Dragon Flies, Beetles, and Scuds. Interpretation of the data produced a Family Biotic Index (FBI) as a measure of quality. FBI’s for two sites up and down stream of a road produces values of 3.62 and 3.8 respectively. This is an excellent rating for upstream and a very good rating for downstream.
Please see the PowerPoint Presentation for details.