The Use of Short-Count Methods on Field Collected Diatom Communities to Determine Water Quality of Small Streams

Authors

James A. Slock, Viterbo CollegeFollow

Document Type

Research

Keywords

diatoms, species diversity, short-count methods, small Iowa streams, Sequential Comparison Index, Shannon Index of General Diversity

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine if short-count methods for calculation of diatom species diversity could be used to determine the water quality of small streams. Two small streams, located in North Central Iowa, were selected for study; one was chosen because it appeared to be in a relatively healthy condition and the other because it appeared to be highly polluted. Diatom samples were collected by direct field collection of the predominant diatom growths in each stream. Short-counts of 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 diatom valves were made and species diversity computed by 2 methods, the Shannon Index of General Diversity and the Sequential Comparison Index. A one-way analysis of variance using mean species diversity values was run on all diatom counts both within and between the samples of each stream. The results showed that short-counts could be used to determine differences in water quality of the 2 small streams studied and further suggest that such analyses might be suitable for other small streams.

Publication Date

December 1979

Journal Title

Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science

Volume

86

Issue

4

First Page

141

Last Page

144

Copyright

©1979 Iowa Academy of Science, Inc.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Slock, James A. (1979) "The Use of Short-Count Methods on Field Collected Diatom Communities to Determine Water Quality of Small Streams," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 86(4), 141-144.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol86/iss4/7