Aquatic Sample Processing

CANTERBURY’S BRAIDED RIVERS SAMPLE PROCESSING
Service Areas: Aquatic Sample Processing

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is currently assessing the impact of flow diversions on the ecology of large braided rivers in Canterbury. This large-scale study has an extensive invertebrate processing programme, and DOC came to EOS Ecology to help with this.

Processing over 300 invertebrate Surber samples, EOS is following their comprehensive in-house ‘full count’ method. In order to work out the productivity of these rivers, the team at EOS is also removing the invertebrates from each sample and weighing them using analytical balances following desiccation in a drying oven. This data will allow DOC to generate habitat suitability curves for the invertebrate communities of Canterbury’s braided rivers under normal and low flow conditions, and ultimately contribute to their effective management.

DIDYMO SAMPLE PROCESSING
Service Areas: Aquatic Sample Processing

Requiring a new approach to the processing of invertebrates from didymo (Didymosphenia geminata) infested samples, NIWA engaged EOS Ecology to develop a new, more effective processing methodology.

Due to the thick cotton wool-like structure of the didymo stalks, standard sample washing was not adequate. The team at EOS trialled a number of techniques in order to obtain the most efficient way of removing invertebrates from these stalks. Processing 78 samples over several years, the EOS team was able to successfully remove and identify all invertebrates to the lowest practicable taxonomic resolution.

AVON-HEATHCOTE ESTUARY/IHUTAI SAMPLE PROCESSING
Service Areas: Aquatic Sample Processing, Ecosystem Health Assessment, Urban Ecology

As part of a long-term programme set up by the Christchurch City Council, Environment Canterbury (ECan), and the Ihutai Trust, EOS Ecology has been commissioned to monitor the health of the Avon-Heathcote Estuary/Ihutai.

Having developed an estuary sampling programme, the EOS team is undertaking annual monitoring at six sites within the estuary and its rivermouths. This programme not only involves the collection of samples but also the processing and identification of all benthic invertebrate fauna, including polychaetes, to the lowest practicable level, and the provision of a reliable dataset to ECan.