WATER QUALITY, SPECIES DIVERSITY, AND QUANTITY IN A STREAM HABITAT Jason R. L. Holcomb Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee Introduction  Some, if not most, streams run in close proximity to housing developments, agricultural fields, and/or roads.  The purpose of this study is to see if the proximity of streams to these factors will lead to a decrease in populations and diversities of fish.  The null hypothesis is that the proximity to the factors mentioned above will have no effect on the water quality, species diversity, or quantity of fish in stream habitats.  Runoff and discharges bring greater nutrient-loading, and more metals, pesticides and other contaminants in streams. Declines in richness of fish, invertebrate and algal communities result. (Drapper et al)  There is extension of the drainage system as new roads and buildings are introduced. Urbanisation therefore changes the hydrological cycle by inducing more rapid runoff, producing higher peak discharges and more numerous floods than in the original rural area. (Bondarev, and Gregory) Results  Charts 1-4 describe the relative abundance of each specie of fish found.  One can notice that Bent Tree creek has a slightly better distribution than Blackburn creek.  Also, the taxa richness, the number of individual species, for Blackburn creek was 14, for Bent Tree creek is was also 14.  Obviously the richness did not change.  The amount of fish captured were: 80 on 9/30, 53 on 10/9, 117 on 3/16, and 128 on 3/25.  On average, the amount rose to 56 more fish captured. Methods and Materials  In this study, a modification of the three pass method was used to sample the two creeks.  The three pass method is the sampling of a specific length of habitat by making three passes over that area during one day. T  he modification used was one class performed one pass of approximately 60 meters on one day. Then, another class performed the exact pass on another day. (Cook, personal communication).  The materials used were: One backpack electro shocker unit with poles, three nets, one buckets (for the fish collected), and five sets of waders.  The method of data processing used is percents, averages and means.  In doing the sampling, one would have a team of five people. One with the backpack unit, three with nets, and one holding a bucket. The carrier of the unit would shock an approximate area of sixty meters. The netters would catch the fish that were incapacitated by the shocking and put them in the bucket filled half way with water. The fish were then identified and counted.  The fish present in the stream give a good representation of the quality of water.  The data was then compiled and interpreted into present dominance, Taxa richness, and relative abundance. a Acknowledgements I thank Dr. Cook and the Fisheries Management class for the samples on Blackburn Creek. The Biology Department for loaning our class the equipment. The owners of the two streams sampled. My team of samplers for Bent Tree Creek: Terry Holcomb, Jeff Snyder, Brandon Snyder, And Tim Mines. Dr. Morgan for the advice on the manuscript. The Biological Communication Skills class for listening to research proposal and platform presentation. Conclusions  The less urban runoff, the lower the pH of the water.  The lower the pH, the more sensitive species present  Less urban runoff leads to more of certain species.  The more oxygen present in the stream, the more fish that are present.  Less urban runoff leads to a different dominate species of fish.  A well developed buffer around a stream in proximity to urban runoff will give about the same results as a stream with no buffer and no urban runoff present.