So....long time no post eh? Well I've been a busy bunny during the summer and more recently at university, now that I'm in my final year honors projects have kicked off and I'm currently in the midst of my own!
I knew I wanted to focus on riverflies and I had a helpful nudge in the direction of studying
Ameletus inopinatus, an upland species of mayfly usually found in small streams above 300m. The experiment underwent many permutations in the planning stage but I've since been out in the field (the Campsie Fells to be precise) to do my fieldwork. I'm going to be looking to see if stream order has an effect on the distribution of the species, and then also look at the relationship between
Ameletus and its freshwater habitat-sharing buddies.
Obtaining my samples was a sweaty job which involved gallumphing up tussock and moss covered hills which were riddled with drainage ditches and jaggy thistles, all while wearing chest waders, a fleece and rainjacket, just in case! Oh yes and lets not forget carrying the net and sample tubs - thankfully I had some expert help and only disappeared into a hole a couple of times.
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| See that little burn on the left? That's what I was trying to kick sample in :) |
I collected 45 one minute kick samples in total, taken from 3 different streams and at various altitudes. Right now I'm settled into the lab work and steadily working through all the samples to pick out the inverts from all the moss and other guff I managed to catch in the net. Here's few snaps of the wee guys I'm discovered so far that inhabitt this seemingly bleak and empty habitat:
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| Nice juicy stonefly |
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| Some microcaddis, or Hydrophilidae, their cases lok like seeds! |
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| Caddisfly larva |
Many of the inverts I find while sorting through the samples are barely a millimeter long, there are tiny limpets, snails, pea mussels and of course tiny riverfly larvae too. The next stage will be trying to identify and count the communities that I've managed to find, then it's onto the stats and trying to make sense of it all!
