One Lane Bridge! Whoa Cowboy! Slow down! This page will be a work in progress for a long time. Hopefully that is a good thing-as I add things that matter to people i work with--rather than just tooting my own horn. Currently, i am busy through July 2007. Look for more updates after that time. It is my goal to provide information that is useful, maybe even thought provoking, to people interested in water quality and aquatic biology. I'll try to add some topics for discussion regularly. Please visit regularly.  Also, I will provide some pdf documents that I have Authored. However, my current web-host only allows 5MB storage, so i need to make some other arrangements before I post reports here. Meanwhile, some current project might be worthy of discussion. Recently Completed Projects: Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks: Effects of Libby Dam, Habitat and the Invasive Diatom Didymosphenia geminata on the Macroinvertebrate Assembleges of the Kootenai River, Montana Sublette County Conservation District:  Baseline Biology of the New Fork River, Sublette County Wyoming. Sublette County Conservation District: Effects of Gas Well development on the benthic Biota of the New Fork River.

Didymosphenia geminata

The invasive diatom (a type of algae which form microscopic glass houses (seriously)), Didymodphenia geminata is a native species that has recently become a nuisance. The "geminata" part of the name refers to its beauty. Once upon a time it was hard to find this species--it was a rarely collected and only from very clean, clear, cold waters (i.e., oligotrophic waters). However, in the late 1980's, and more so in the 1990's it started forming mucus-like slimes in many northern streams--this earned the species a new vernacular name: "Rock snot." In the new millennium, it started taking over streams in new Zealand--where it is an Exotic species. In New Zealand we are not just talking about a thin slippery coating on rocks in clear streams, it actually forms 6-10" thick slime coatings over the rocks in some fabulous NZ trout streams... Rock snot indeed! I have personally seen coatings of a couple of inches in Montana and Wyoming. The reasons for this changes in D. geminata's growth patterns are unclear. I believe they are related to ozone layer changes--and I have several reasons for this. Other people think a new strain appeared. Whatever the reason for it's spread around the world, its impacts are unclear. It grows in low nutrient streams, so it is most evident in some of our "cleanest" rivers. It coats stones completely in shallow riffles and may fill pore spaces. I have seen insects become entangled in the slime.  We know there is potential for this phenomenon to reduce fish production by reducing the food available (either by mortality of prey, or accessibility to prey)--thus we know that there is potential to disturb ecosystem function (this makes it a Clean Water Act Issue!!). But how significant is the impact? I have a great graph-- well a series of them actually--but the files are not with me now... I'll ad them latter. The take home message from my Kootenai River Survey was that both Shredders and Scrapers disappeared when epilithic biofilms (slime on rocks) exceeded 8mg/cm2. However they benefited between 3-5mg/cm2. I also showed that the amount of epilithic biofilm on rocks was more important than any other habitat measure for determining biological metric scores. Summary for many of you: This stuff can really screw up a bioassessment... low nutrient streams may appear to be polluted when they are not. Want to discuss this? sounds fun! contact me!