Great Basin National Park's 2015 Stream Insects BioBlitz

Written from an article by Riley Nelson (Brigham Young University), Boris Kondratieff (Colorado State University) and Gretchen Baker (Ecologist, Great Basin National Park), first published in The Midden*, Vol. 16, No. 1, Summer 2016.*

The event

Great Basin National Park held its seventh annual BioBlitz on May 15–17, 2015, focused on stream insects — especially the three orders that signal good water quality:

• mayflies (Ephemeroptera)
• stoneflies (Plecoptera)
• caddisflies (Trichoptera)

Who took part:

• Dr. Boris Kondratieff, Colorado State University, lead entomologist, helped by Dr. Riley Nelson, Brigham Young University;
• Dave Ruiter, the leading expert on caddisflies in the American West;
• the Nevada State Entomologist and crew;
• eleven park employees and citizen scientists from several states.

In all, more than 35 people put in over 500 hours, sampling nearly every stream in the park.

How the samples were taken

1. Kick net: disturb the streambed so animals wash into the net.
2. Sort the raw mass in white trays.
3. Put 100 invertebrates into a vial of 70% ethanol — taken regardless of size or speed, so each sample mirrors the stream's real mix of species.

What was found

• 23 standard samples held 2,366 specimens in 99 taxa — a mean of 103 per sample.
• Broader searching added more, for a total of 107 species.

Table 1. Taxa found, by group.

The results add to what the park knows about which stream insects live where. Overall, the diversity points to a very healthy stream ecosystem.

Sources

Based on "2015 Stream Insects BioBlitz Results," by Riley Nelson, Boris Kondratieff and Gretchen Baker, The Midden — Great Basin National Park, Vol. 16, No. 1, Summer 2016, published by the National Park Service and in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words. The table is transcribed from the article's image of it. Riley Nelson's photographs of the survey and of an adult stonefly are not reproduced. The source's "Twenty three first 100 samples" is read as 23 samples of the first 100 specimens.