Nature+Science+Challenge-+Aquatic+Insects

The Natural Sciences Museum joined a global Nature Challenge using the iNaturalist App. The scientist with us that day brought samples of pond water from the Prairie Ridge Ecostation for us to analyze. I saw several insects, a majority of them being tadpoles and larvae of Dragonflies. There had recently been a migration of frogs to the pond and they had laid hundreds of eggs that had turned into the tadpoles that we saw.

These insects were clear indicators of the quality of the pond as we discussed before in APES. We were able to see great biodiversity with several types of insects, ducks, and geese. We were also told to put some of the tadpoles in different containers than some insects as they could eat them. This clearly showed how food webs worked in a real pond. This real world application to the aquatic ecosystem and water quality information we learned this year really helped expand my knowledge about how organisms work together to sustain ecosystems.