The Peter G. Meier Water Quality Survey

email: jacques@umich.edu
pgmeier@umich.edu

The Peter G. Meier Water Quality Survey, established in 2006, honors Dr Peter Gustav Meier, Professor Emeritus of Aquatic Ecology and Toxicology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr Meier is currently a water quality consultant and may be reached at pgmeier@umich.edu.

The Peter G. Meier Water Quality Survey is a self-funded endeavor initiated and managed by Hannah-Maria Jacques. Stream bottom insects and other aquatic macroinvertebrates are collectively known as benthos. Samples of benthos are currently collected on a monthly basis from Traver Creek, a stream that drains the north-central portion of the City of Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. One sampling is taken just upstream of Broadway Street, adjacent to Plymouth Park and a short distance from the Huron River. A second sampling is taken both upstream and downstream from Dhu Varren Road, several kilometers north of the Broadway Street site. The Dhu Varen Road area remains primarily rural although several housing developments have been built in the last decade and more are anticipated. The creek originates in farmland north of the city, passes through fields and forest, parkland, a golfcourse and residential areas. It empties into the Huron River which in turn flows to Lake Eire, approximately 49km (30 miles) southeast of Ann Arbor.

Stream bottom sampling of insects and other aquatic macroinvertebrates was performed in December 2005, and has continued on a monthly basis since March 2006.

At the present time, there are three additional pages to the Peter G. Meier Water Quality Survey web site: a listing of benthic macroinvertebrates collected in December of 2005, including enlargeable photos of the organisms collected, is available at Macroinvertebrates Collected December 2005. Also currently available is a Cumulative List of Traver Creek EPT Collected. This list provides family, generic, and for some organisms, specific identification of all mayflies, stoneflies or caddisflies collected to date. These three groups of insects belong to the orders, Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera, respectively, and hence the acronym EPT. The cumulative list is updated as each month's samples are sorted and their EPT organisms are identified. Finally, we have added a 2008 Cumulative List of Traver Creek Macroinvertebrates. As 2008 monthly samples are collected at the Broadway Street and the Dhu Varren Road locations, the cumulative results of the sampling will be posted on the Survey's web site.

The cumulative list is a work in progress. We intend to expand our sampling efforts in 2008 to include additional segments of Traver Creek at the Broadway and Dhu Varren sites. In particular, additional microhabitats will be sampled. Now, at the beginning of 2008, we have collected 10 EPT genera from Traver Creek at Broadway St and 19 such genera from the Dhu Varren site. We believe there are more mayfly, stonefly, and caddisfly genera yet to be discovered in Traver Creek, and we shall post the results of our collections on this web site.