Bucket Buddies
We are participating in a project to see if the same bugs are in all freshwater ponds no matter what country they are in. Students from different places collect samples then send their results to the USA to be published online.
Our water came from some Wetlands at Marion, South Australia, the Wetlands clean water from the Sturt Creek. Before the new Wetlands were created all the water flowed down through big concrete channels and out to sea so any rubbish or pollution the water picked up also went out to sea. Now Trash Racks catch any rubbish while reeds and other plants help to clean the water before it goes into the concrete channels.
It would be good if there was a nice creek all the way to the sea instead of a concrete drain.
We collected the water in autumn (fall), April 2006.
Are freshwater creatures the same all over the world?Two students thought they would be and eight students thought they’d be different.
The reasons for thinking they’d be the same were:
“I’ve heard it before”“It’s all freshwater, there are the same plants so there would be the same animals.”
The reasons for thinking they’d be different were:
“Other places have different land animals.”“Different deserts have different animals so different waters would have different animals.”
“Countries are different, climates are different so the water animals would be different.”
Here are our results:
|
Invertebrate |
Number Found |
| Caddis fly larva |
4 |
| Fish |
3 |
| Fresh water shrimp |
70 |
| Mayfly Nymph |
1 |
| Mosquito Larva |
3 |
| Water boatman (tiny) |
163 |
| Water Snail |
4 |