Dessie L. A. Underwood, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, CSULB
Stream Ecology and Assessment Laboratory (SEAL).
Since 2005 the Stream Ecology and Assessment Laboratory (SEAL) at CSULB has been quantifying the biological health of the freshwater streams in the Santa Ana and San Jacinto watersheds using bioassessment techniques. Bioassessment is a “holistic” determination of the ecological health of a system. It involves describing the biological community (numbers and types of species present) of a given system and statistically comparing that community to ecosystem benchmarks of biological health. This long-term project, funded by the California State Water Boards, is innovative as it simultaneously provides two fundamental public services to the State of California, assessing the biological health of our State's freshwater resources and training the next generation of freshwater biologists. In my last report for IIRMES, I focused on the first of these two public services, assessing the biological health of Southern Californian freshwater streams. This report will detail our student training activities and will highlight two student research projects that are indirectly supported by this project.
SEAL provides training in the science of bioassessment for both undergraduate and graduate students at CSULB. Typically SEAL employs approximately five undergraduates and four graduate students at any point in time. Students are trained in three areas: 1) appreciating and gaining an understanding of the terminology and industry standards used by bioassessment professionals, 2) learning laboratory and field skills relevant to freshwater bioassessment, and 3) designing and conducting scientifically defensible experiments in stream ecology. Each of these areas is described below.
Industry standards in bioassessment demand strict adherence to laboratory and field protocols, including data entry requirements, sample processing, and assessment of error rates. Proper data entry and execution of bench tasks demand that students learn and follow our Quality Assurance Protection Plan (QAPP). Most agencies and private firms also employ a project-specific QAPP and they seek job candidates that are familiar with this paradigm. The SEAL training program is hierarchical with progressive stages that incorporate increasing levels of sophistication and responsibility. To gain entry to SEAL and to earn promotions, students must demonstrate their skills on written and bench examinations based on our QAPP. Performance on these examinations is evaluated following strict benchmarks in quality control (QC). A passing score based on SEAL QC is 90% on written examinations and 95% on bench tests. These QC benchmarks are standard within the bioassessment industry. In addition to mastering practical skills, students within the SEAL training program also gain an important life lesson that “passing” in the real world, the world outside of the University, may require performance at an “A” level.
SEAL also provides training for students in both field and laboratory skills. Bioassessment includes collecting data and samples while in the field and processing these data and samples in the laboratory. Field crews learn standard techniques in quantifying the physical characteristics of a stream, measuring in situ chemistry, describing the surrounding riparian vegetation, and obtaining a random sample of the benthic macroinvertebrates (BMIs) living in a stream. In the laboratory, students learn how to obtain random subsamples of each field-collected sample of BMIs and how to process these samples for subsequent taxonomic analyses. Advanced students are trained in the taxonomic identification of BMIs and data analysis.
Dessie L. A. Underwood earned her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis in 1992; she joined the faculty at CSULB in 1999.
Members of SEAL include the following graduate students: Emily Ferrill,Lauren Fah,Marty Lewis,Raymond Macias, Matthew Schlibe,Lauren Singleton; undergraduate students: Robert Esquivel and Ashley Watts; and lab alumni: Jose Caprile,Cindy Castaneda,Emily Corona,Danny Cuellar,Victor Navarro,Richard Watson,Wendy Willis,and Nesve Yayalar.