Old Woman Creek

Day 1 (10/3/13): Plankton tow from Old Woman Creek Estuary; plankton tow from Lake Erie

            On October 4^th, we went to Old Woman Creek, which is located in Huron. Old Woman Creek is an estuary (area where the river meets the lake) that is used for research and education purposes. This location is known for trying to find solutions to various common water abnormalities. Old Woman Creek is an interesting location because it contains various types of habitats: marshes, swamps, upland forests, open water and tributary streams. Old Woman Creek is ideal for research and education because it has different types of habitats and it also has a very diverse range of plants and animals that are native to freshwater estuaries.

Daphnia pulex 
(Image from Wikipedia)

Plankton tows collected from the estuary and Lake Erie were observed on the first night. We were not able to examine concentrated water samples, however, because we forgot to pack pipets (whoops…)

The plankton tow collected from the estuary yielded thousands of Daphnia and Bosmina but few algae. Because phytoplankton are food for zooplankton, we were not surprised to find only a few taxa in our sample. Merismopedia, a genus of cyanobacteria that forms characteristic sheets of coccoid cells, was seen in this sample, as cyanobacteria are not preferred food for zooplankton. Large chains of Fragilaria (Bacillariophyta) were also seen among the zooplankton.

Fragilaria crotonensis
(Image from craticula.ncl.ac.uk)

The plankton tow from Lake Erie was more diverse; in addition to Fragilaria and Merismopedia, we found multiple Pediastrum (Chlorophyta) species and two Dinophyte genera, Ceratium and Pediastrum.

Day 2 (10/4/13): Plankton tows and periphyton samples, macroinvertebrate samples, and fish seine samples collected from Old Woman Creek Estuary

            During our Saturday morning canoe trip down the estuary, we collected several plankton tows, periphyton grab samples, and picked out some macroinvertebrates to identify in the OWC lab.  Following our canoe excursion (and the few hours of nice weather) we learned how to collect fish using a seine net, similar to our method of collecting macroinvertebrates from North Chagrin River. Only one taxa of fish were collected from multiple seining attempts; Emerald Shiners (Notropis antherinoides) were abundant. These fish feed on zooplankton and phytoplankton and are excellent food sources for larger sport fish.

OWC estuary, with invasive Phragmites
covering most of the shoreline

            In addition to fish seining, we used dip nets around the bank of the estuary to collect macroinvertebrates. Water boatmen (Corixidae) were the most abundant macroinvertebrate. Water scuds (Amphipoda) were also identified in the field burrowing in filamentous green algae.

In the lab, we recorded many genera of algae and families of macroinvertebrates.

            We found at least 27 genera of diatoms (Bacillariophyta), but could have easily found more if time allowed. Diatom genera included Achnanthidium, Amphora, Aulocoseira, Bacillaria (check out the sweet video of a Bacillaria colony moving), Cocconeis, Cyclotella, Cymbella, Diadesmis, Encyonema and Gomphonema (forming stalks connected by mucilage and free-swimming frustules), Eunotia (a typical indicator of acidic waters), Frustulia, Gyrosigma (often found in soils or wetlands with high dissolved oxygen), Hippodonta, long chains of Melosira varians, Navicula (named for and identified by it’s boat-shaped frustule), Nitzschia, Pinnularia, Placoneis, Planothidium, long chains of Pseudostaurosira, Sellaphora, Stauroneis, Stephanodiscus, Surirella, Synedra, Tryblionella, and Ulnaria.

Tetrastrum sp.

cf. Centritractus sp.

            Green algae were more difficult to identify; the diverse genera found in these samples are not often seen in the Johansen lab, so identifications were based on Prescott’s Algae of the Great Lakes reference book. Genera of both Chlorophyta and Charophyta included Ankistrodesmus, Characium, a bloom-forming nuisance alga called Cladophora, crescent-shaped Closterium, Cosmarium, Desmodesmus, an interesting and rarely seen alga which we called Echinosphaerella, colonies of horseshoe-shaped cells of Kirchneriella, Monoraphidium, Oedogonium, several species of Pediastrum, Scenedesmus, and a clover-shaped colony of what we believe to be Tetrastrum. Cyanobacteria were not as abundant as diatoms or green algae, but six genera were recorded: Anabaena, Cylindrospermum, Geitlerinema, Leibleinia, more Merismopedia, and Pseudanabaena. Higher resolution identification of cyanobacteria is nearly impossible without the aid of molecular methods. Additional divisions of algae were recorded, including the popular zooplankton food item Dinobryon (Chryosphyta), Synura (Synurophyta), another rare taxa which most closely resembled the Trybophyte Centritractus, the Dinophyte Gymnodinium, and several Euglenophyta (Euglena, Lepocinclis, Phacus, and Trachelomonas), all of which are typically considered to be indicators of eutrophication.

            Many families of macroinvertebrates (Class Insecta) were recorded using dissecting microscopes. These included Gerridae (Water Strider), Haliplidae (Crawling Water Beetle), a gnarly-looking Stratiomyidae (Soldier fly), Corixidae (Water boatman), Coenagrionidae (Narrow-winged damselfly), Baetidae (Small Minnow Mayfly), Belostomatidae (Giant Water Bug), and Libellulidae (Dragonfly).

            In addition to algae, macroinvertebrates, fish, and zooplankton, we identified other types of organisms. These included testate amoebae (Cercozoa), ciliates including Vorticella, Paramecia and Stentor, as well as Gastrotrichs (Gastrotricha) and the sulfur bacterium Beggiatoa.

Day 3 (10/5/13): Field excursions to Sheldon Marsh and Magee Marsh

Sheldon Marsh, full of Phragmites

            On October 6th, we visited two wetlands near Old Woman Creek. We first visited Sheldon Marsh. Sheldon Marsh is owned by the state right on the shoreline of the Sandusky Bay Region. Sheldon Marsh is of great important because it currently home to many plants and animals that have been starting to get limited. Sheldon Marsh has done a great job of preserving various habitats like old-field, hardwood forest, woodland swamp, cattail marsh and barrier sand beach. All these habitats used to be common along Lake Erie’s western basin, but it has definitely become less common over the years. Sheldon Marsh is also known for housing 300 different variants of birds as well as being home to variety of wildflowers. Some of the birds that are seen at Sheldon marsh are great blue herons, red-tail hawks, wood ducks and many more.

            The second site we visited was Magee Marsh. Magee Marsh is located in Port Clinton, Ohio. This marsh first became famous for hunting. In the 1900s, wealthy sportsmen would come to Magee Marsh to hunt for various types of game. Some of the wildlife that is seen at Magee Marsh is waterfowl, waterbirds, shorebirds, and songbirds. In addition to attracting people for hunting, Magee Marsh does an excellent job of keeping the wetland habitat in good condition for the different types of wildlife that it houses.

During both field trips, we identified a few vascular plants and various waterfowl. The most striking observation was the abundance of the invasive plant Phragmites at Sheldon Marsh, which has taken over a large portion of wetlands, removing water that waterfowl prefer, and has outcompeted native cattail species. Other plant species included goldenrod, swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), Pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana), and Cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), which we found stuck to our clothing throughout the entire weekend. Magee Marsh had limited trail access because children were playing with guns in the woods. However, we had a lovely hike around the 1-mile of open trail, played with a baby snake, saw a crazy Asian praying mantis, and ate apples off of a tree.