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February in our
Catchment That was a wonderful drop of rain, and hopefully we
will get some good follow up rains very soon. The season is on the turn but we
may still be in for some hot weather. Looking at the farm dams when driving
about the district, it appears that most are full and are holding, which may
indicate some level of restoration of ground water.
Your Results:
Water temperatures, except for the upper Queanbeyan catchment, were still
greater than 20°C and may remain high for another month, till we get some chilly
evenings. Some sites showed an elevated Turbidity reading, which is no surprise
after a flood. The only one over standard was Jerrabomberra Creek just outside
the wetlands. The Queanbeyan was still quite tea-like when I took samples for
classes this week. Some of the fragile banks and walls in many of our waterways
may have been undercut in the floods and so may continue to crumble and add to
the turbidity. It was interesting to see how many sites have lowered Electrical
Conductivity, and it shows up the real ‘limey’ spots and the urban sites. The
dissolved oxygen levels are quite sensitive to flood materials, and will remain
all over the place while there is still decomposition going on. Flood mud is
biologically very active, not only with cyanobacterial crusts (and these produce
oxygen) but with soil bacteria, hence the ‘whale factory’ smell. Nitrates are
present in low quantities in most of the off-stream wetlands while the bottom of
Sullivans Creek still has elevated phosphates. The blooms that are with us:
 The
David Street wetland has been developing a skin of Euglena all summer.
Now it is definitely at its lurid best. Fiona Dyer and family, who have taken
over watching it for our catchment, sent this picture of the Red Sea! Euglena
sanguinea is an interesting organism. While it does have the capacity to
make food from sunlight, it, like most of its relatives can ingest food from its
surroundings too. Many Euglena and Phacus species have distinct
storage bodies within their cell; E. sanguinea can have two discs, but
also fills with granules. The red, water repellent skin on the water is mostly
made of encysted cells that may dry out if beached, and blow away to distribute
the organism. There have been reports of various blooms from both Ginninderra
and Southern Catchments. Do you know of any interesting ones in your area?
The Queanbeyan Regatta:
In just two weeks time the Queanbeyan Regatta Day will be held on the weir pool.
It’s probably a bit late to build your gold medal raft or other form of water
craft. But it’s never too late to be involved. Andy and I will be there with the
trailer, showing off what the Catchment group does, and encouraging people to
value the biodiversity of the river and the region. Please come along and see
us! Chances to broaden your mind:
Tanya tells me the next Newsletter will be out shortly. We are not going to
attempt to send them round to people any more...we will let you know when it has
been posted on both the DECCEW website and the Molonglo Catchment Group website.
This one should contain plenty of interesting reading. It will not be long
before the next QA/QC event is on. We are hoping to have it and one of the
training sessions in our end of the area this autumn. I am putting the finishing
touches to the information sheets that will help you record the state of the
algae in your Waterwatch sites right now. We hope to have a training afternoon
very soon! We also will have sessions on aquatic animals this autumn. Next
sampling day is the 20th March, three weekends away! Thank you all for your
great work this time, especially all the picture takers...they will be up on
your site pages shortly. Stephen Skinner,
Molonglo Waterwatch
Coordinator |
