Water Quality Of U-High Creek

Introduction Paragraph
The question that’s being investigated is what is the water quality of the U-high creek based on the macroinvertebrates found in the creek. Water quality can be measured in various ways including oxygen levels, pH, nitrogen and phosphorus levels. Dissolved oxygen is when oxygen molecules mix with water molecules. It is important because water gets into oxygen from the surrounding air.The pH scale is used to measure the relative acidity of solutions and phosphorus is a chemical element used to also measure. Water's pH levels should be between 6.5 to 8.5. Nitrogen measures the water on a scale from least healthy to very unhealthy. Another way to determine water quality is to look at the invertebrates in the water. Invertebrates are good at displaying pollution levels because they have many qualities that can show pollution over time. Invertebrates can be classified into three groups such as pollution tolerant, moderately pollution tolerant,
If pollution tolerant invertebrates are present, then the water has low water quality. If moderately pollution tolerant invertebrates are present then the water is average water quality. If pollution intolerant invertebrates are present then the water is good quality. The impact of water quality on stream ecosystems is determined by the diversity of the ecosystem. Diversity is a characteristic of healthy, stable ecosystems. A healthy river has many different invertebrates feeding in many different ways. It must show it is diverse. If the pollution affects the diversity, then the diversity will fall down, making the ecosystem unstable. If the ecosystem becomes unstable then it will affect the food chains or in this case the aquatic food chains. Diversity basically affects the food chains and the stableness of ecosystems. The stability of the invertebrates in the U-high creek will tell us how much diversity and