Effects of Human Activity on Water Quality Studies on the Upper Paint Creek Watershed By Emily Daniels Mary Estock and Ashley Hooper

Objective Our main objective was to identify how human activity (= agriculture and development) affect the aquatic life diversity in the Upper Paint Creek Watershed.

Upper Paint Creek Watershed

Upper Paint Creek Watershed (continued) Northern Area: Agricultural Southern Area: Forest and Agricultural Washington Courthouse

Methodology Biotic Index: –QHEI: Quantitative Habitat Evaluation Index –ICI: Invertebrate Community Index –IBI: Index of Biological Integrity Chemical measurements –Nutrients (N and P): Nitrate, Phosphate –BOD: Biochemical Oxygen Demand

Methodology The Ohio EPA went out and collected all of the data along the watershed, that we used in this project.

Hypothesis H1. The higher the QHEI the higher the ICI and the IBI, this is affected by the land use and amount of riparian. H2. When the nutrients are high, the ICI and the IBI are low. H3. When the BOD is high, the ICI and the IBI will be low.

H1: Does the QHEI effect the aquatic life in the Upper Paint Creek Watershed? QHEI IBI

H1: Does the riparian area effect the aquatic life in the Upper Paint Creek Watershed? ICI/IBI Value sample Riparian

Discussion on Hypothesis 1 Our first hypothesis was correct. The higher QHEI, the higher the IBI and the ICI. The land use and amount of riparian also can effect the aquatic life. `The QHEI, the IBI, and the ICI are usually higher in agricultural areas, and lower in urban areas. `The more riparian zone there is, the higher the IBI and ICI.

H2: Nutrients vs ICI and IBI

Discussion on Hypothesis 2 In the graphs, the data mainly shows that the hypothesis was correct. In one place on each graph, there was a point that did not support the hypothesis. This was the outlier. Other than those four points, the data supported the hypothesis.

H3: at each station: BOD vs. ICI and IBI

Effect on downstream: BOD vs. ICI and IBI

Discussion on Hypothesis 3 First, the hypothesis seemed incorrect. At the same spot, even with high BOD, the ICI and IBI were also high. BUT, the effect of high BOD was observed downstream with low ICI and IBI.

Conclusion In our study, we found that the Upper Paint Creek Watershed is a pretty clean watershed. The main problem in the watershed is the level of nutrients, which affects the level of habitat alterations.

Conclusion Effect of Human Activities: in a dense agricultural watershed, the city of Washington Courthouse has a bad impact on the stream habitat and water quality.

Special Thanks To... The Ohio EPA The Ohio Supercomputer Center The Ohio State University and all of our wonderful counselors, teachers and advisors.