The Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI) Watershed Water Quality Monitoring of Bayou Chene an Lacassine Bayou Presented to: NPS Project Review Meeting Wednesday, December 12, 2012 LDEQ Baton Rouge, LA Presented by: Durga D Poudel UL Lafayette

Introduction Objectives Materials and Methods Results and Discussions Summary Acknowledgements

Introduction

ZoneACREAGE Zone I Thornwell Drainage Canal9392 Zone II Lacassine Bayou59394 Zone III Indian Bayou Canal12756 Zone IV Bayou Chene37364 Zone V West Bayou Lacassine13303 Zone VI East Bayou Lacassine29471 Zone VII West Bayou Grand Marias9998 Zone VIII Middle Bayou Grand Marias6607 Zone IX Gum Gully34190

Materials and Methods Weekly field measurements and sampling: Water depth, DO, temp. pH, turb., cond. Laboratory determination: TSS, TDS, TS, Nitrite, Nitrate, TKN, TP, SRP, Cl, Fl, SO4, BOD5

Fish and macroinvertibrates sampling

 For each castnet (12ft radius cast net with 3/8th inch mesh size) sample, we combined the fish from 5 cast net throws.  For each dipnet sample, we sample 5 minutes.  We do this 4 times per site (resulting in the 4 replicates) for a total of 20 cast net throws and 20 minutes of dipnetting per site.  Collecting the fish and benthic samples takes 2.5 to 3 hours per site, for a crew of three people.  Benthic samples were taken with a petite Ponar grab, and sieved in the field (500 micron screen). Sample sorting/identification is ongoing.

Petite Ponar Grab sampler > 500 µm fraction to be preserved in 10% formalin with Rose Bengal stain.

Results and Discussion

site#/ cast#/dip min#/dip min excl. G.a.* 1L L L L L C C C C Lacassine mean Bayou Chene mean Overall mean Overall min Overall max Overall SD Fish abundance measures, by site, bayou and overall. Shown are mean numbers per cast throw (5 throws/replicate) and numbers per minute of collection by dipnet (5 min. per replicate) for the four replicates at each site combined. * Mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) excluded due to sometimes extreme numerical dominance (up to 99% of total number of individuals)

FAMILYSPECIESCOMMON NAME BelonidaeStrongylura sp.Needle fish CatostomidaeCarpiodes cyprinusQuillback CentrarchidaeElassoma okefenokee Okefenokee pygmy sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis auritusRedbreast sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis cyanellysGreen sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis gibbosusPumpkinseed sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis humilisOrange-spotted sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis macrochirusBluegill sunfish CentrarchidaeLepomis symmetricusBantam sunfish CentrarchidaePomoxis annularisWhite crappie Centrarchidae Pomoxis nigromaculatusBlack crappie ClupeidaeDorosoma cepedianumGizzard shad FundulidaeFundulus chrysotusGolden topminnow HiodontidaeHiodon tergisusMooneye IctaluridaeIctalurus punctatusChannel catfish MugilidaeMugil cephalusStriped mullet PoeciliidaeGambusia affinisWestern mosquitofish PoeciliidaeHeterandria formosaLeast killifish Fish species collected

June-July fish and benthic organisms Diversity measures # fish speciesDiv. index H'Div. index H" (w/o G.a.) 1L L L L L C C C C Lacassine B. mean Bayou Chene mean Overall mean Overall min Overall max Overall SD

Field observations

Summary  Weekly data collection helps in understanding water quality variability and watershed conditions better.  Monthly flow data for sampling locations are being collected with the help of LDEQ which will allow us in calculating loading rates for the 9 Zones per unit area and determining the effectiveness of BMPs in reducing nutrients, sediments, and biological oxygen demanding substances entering the bayous.  Biological data on species diversity and abundance will be useful in assessing the effectiveness of BMPs on improving watershed health and aquatic life.

Acknowledgements We like to acknowledge LDEQ and EPA Region 6 for funding this project. We also like to thank NRCS, LDAF, LDEQ staff and other stakeholders for helping us in this project