Student Carnegie Mellon University Titusville, New Jersey
The World Economic Forum lists water scarcity as a major global risk, leaving us more dependent on surface water for drinking. This requires more filtration infrastructure, and monitoring of surface water sources. Current methods rely on expensive, technically challenging manual biological sample identification by morphology. Macroinvertebrates spend their larval lives within a small area of water, showing cumulative effects of habitat alteration and pollutants undetected by chemical testing and field sensors. Citizen science plays a role in data collection, but taxonomic identification past the family level is rare, limiting ability to observe ecological changes over time. Molecular methods such as DNA Barcoding enhance biomonitoring programs. This effort has established a prototype Genetics Entomological Monitoring Station (GEMS) lab extension. GEMS can be applied to enhance citizen science water monitoring programs and community education, as it is optimized to be low cost with high resolution for biological water health monitoring. GEMS has been tested through establishment of a prototype lab and extended to create a genetics lab kit to perform bioassessment with materials and equipment folding into a carry-on suitcase. The optimal standard taxonomic level for waterway health assessment globally as well as statistical power at each taxonomic level was explored. Levels were compared through phylogenetic tree analyses and genus was determined optimal. The validated method was used to assess pollutants on a waterway used for municipal drinking water. Statistical analysis was used to compare taxonomic levels: family, subfamily, genus, and species. Data from phylogenetic tree analyses showed potential novel species found.
