Plattsburgh, NY
In an earlier blog post, I talked about one of our long term monitoring projects on Zooplankton at Lake Champlain research institute (LCRI). Zooplankton study is one of the longest continuing studies which conducted by LCRI. Besides the Long Term Zooplankton monitoring project, there are several other interesting projects also conducted by LCRI. In this blog post I’m going to talk to you about “Spiny water flea watch” which we started only two years ago.
Spiny water flea is an invasive species native to the Northern Europe. It is very small and about half inch long. It is not an insect, but is actually a cladoceran. It is not microscopic but it is very hard to see with the naked eye because about 70% its length being a thin barbed tail. Recent studies have shown that Spiny water flea has been found in all the Great lakes in the last two decades. Spiny water flea could dramatically disrupt Lake Champlain’s food web. In addition to competing with native zooplankton, spiny water flea is much more difficult for small fish to ingest. It a very poor food source for small fish.
In the June of 2012, our LCRI research team was able to find the Spiny water flea in the northern New York region. In fact, I and Luke Myers were able to identify Spiny Water Flea from a water sample from Glens Falls feeder canal. Other researchers who were directly linked to the Department of Environmental Conservation of New York, subsequently found Spiny Water flea in the Lake George and hugely publicized. Spiny water flea is not been reported in Lake Champlain yet. Field work for the summer 2013 is yet to start. We wouldn’t be surprised if we see a completely different outcome from last year.
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| Image By: Luke Myers at LCRI |
Special Thanks to:
- Luke Myers
- Dr. Tim Mihuc
- Mark, Erin & George at LCRI
I am a Biology graduate from SUNY Plattsburgh, NY. I was employed at Lake Champlain Research Institute, Plattsburgh, NY during 2011-2013. There, I studied, longterm trends of zooplankton in Lake Champlain. One day, I hope to utilize my skills and experience towards a conservation of aquatic biology and make a worthy contribution to the science.
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