Kabakwa Lake’s 2023 Benthic Assessment Macroinvertebrate Water Quality

Title

Kabakwa Lake’s 2023 Benthic Assessment Macroinvertebrate Water Quality

Author

Jennifer Fedak & Daniel Vandeloo

Host Organization

Halls and Hawks Lake Property Owner's Association

Supervising Faculty

Dr. Kaitlyn Fleming

Date

December 1st, 2023

Location of Document

Online

Area

Haliburton

Subject

Benthic macroinvertebrate assessment of Kabakwa lake

Abstract

Kabakwa Lake’s 2023 Benthic Macroinvertebrate Water Quality Assessment was completed as part of an aquatic biomonitoring program by U-Links in conjunction with Kabakwa Lake owners, such as Bill Forbes. The 2023 visitation was the third year of sampling, which contributed to the long-term dataset required to determine water quality trends. Benthic macroinvertebrates (hereafter, benthos) are invertebrates that spend most or all of their lives in water which can make them susceptible to organic pollution (Jones et al., 2006; Borisko et al, 2007). Benthos in conjunction with water chemistry data can be used to access the health of a lake (Carbone et al, 1998).
This summary seeks to provide stakeholders with a preliminary indication of the health of Kabakwa Lake (hereafter, Kabakwa). This is done though explaining what the benthos community assemblage infers about the current water quality of Kabakwa. The objectives for 2023 include (1) collecting benthos through a modified OBBN sampling protocol; (2) identifying collected benthos in lab and sorting them into OBBN groupings; (3) quantifying each group using metrics to determine abundance, richness, and diversity; (4) interpreting the results to provide an assessment of Kabakwa’s water quality.

Publisher

Trent University

Date Available

2024

Date Created

2023

Date Accepted

2023

Date Submitted

2023

Files

Reference

Jennifer Fedak & Daniel Vandeloo, Kabakwa Lake’s 2023 Benthic Assessment Macroinvertebrate Water Quality, Trent University, December 1st, 2023