Miami Loramie Watershed Our watershed is located in western Ohio north of Dayton.These areas are rural and have lots of agriculture. Our watershed has 6 major impairments. The highest were habitat alterations, nutrient enrichment and siltation. Mercer Auglaize Miami Shelby Champaign Darke Montgomery Clarke

IBI- It measures the diversity of fish. Nitrites- Chemical compound that is found in fertilizers and septic tanks.( NO 2 ) QHEI- It measures habitat quality of streams. Riparian-The area next to the stream. Substrate- Bottom of the stream, healthy streams have a rocky bottom. DO- dissolved oxygen, which fish need to breath.

The healthier the Substrate (river bottom), the better the IBI score(fish diversity) will be. BadGood mucky sandy gravel rocky Reasoning: Substrate creates breeding grounds and shelter. Rocky substrate is able to support a larger diversity of fish species.

Results: The data I looked at gave evidence to support my hypothesis.

As the QHEI decreases so does the IBI. Reasoning Vegetation prevents erosion and provides shade for fish. Vegetation stops most runoff. Meanders and healthy substrate provide different habitats for fish.

Melanie and I have the same outliers. An outlier is data that does not follow the trend. We think that the outliers may be caused by an unusually high COD. When looking at our data I found evidence supporting my hypothesis.

Melanie and Kaitlynn’s Conclusion We concluded that our hypothesizes were supported by the data and there are ways to improve the IBI. People can improve the riparian zone to help slow erosion and provide shade. Thankfully there is a program set in place called the Bonus Filter Program. If the people who own the land near the river put in grass they get $90/acre. If they put in woodlands they receive $500/acre. After the buffer zone is put in, the land can not be used for animal grazing or growing hay.

When Nitrite goes up IBI goes down. Regressive Relationship Nitrite helps algae grow. Later when dead algae rot lots of DO is used. Fish need DO to breathe. If the nitrite increases the fish will die or they will swim to a new habitat.

When I compared the data, my graph showed evidence that my hypothesis was correct.

 The Nitrite helps algae grow.  Sometimes too much Nitrite gets into a river.  We can stop from having too much Nitrite into the watersheds. We can help homeowners, businesses and farmers from letting Nitrites runoff into the river.  We can reduce the amount of fertilizer used.  Adding more buffer zones will help block runoff from entering the river.

Healthy fish Healthy stream Good Drinking water for us. Healthy fish Good Fishing

A BIG thanks to: Ohio Supercomputer Center YWSI The Ohio State University Teachers and Counselors American Electric Power Battelle P&G Ingram White Castle Foundation