Our Frequently Asked Questions

All aquatic life needs oxygen to survive. Dissolved oxygen is the amount of oxygen that dissolves in water. Typically, levels higher than 5 mg/l are sustainable for survival in Ohio streams.

Because it varies by course, this information as well as complete course instructions are available when you view your order. Simply go to “My Account”, and click on view.

You can donate to MBI by visiting our donation page on our website. We accept various payment methods, including credit/debit cards and PayPal. You can also donate by check by mailing to: Midwest Biodiversity Institute, 4673 Northwest Parkway, Hilliard, OH 43026.

If you would like to donate stock, goods, services, or even your time, please contact MBI’s Executive Director Trent Dougherty at tdougherty@mwbinst.com.

Chemical testing to identify specific concentrations of different parameters such as dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, nutrients, pH, total hardness, metals, pesticides, temperature, and turbidity. This is important because it can determine if water can sustain aquatic life and can also help identify point source pollution or from polluted runoff.

Habitat alterations, land use changes, and various pollutants can and do impact
fishes and their assemblages.

Planktonic macroinvertebrates are suspended in open water/uses water currents to move around. Benthic macroinvertebrates live on the bottom of the stream bed using things like rocks, sticks, and other organic debris to hold on to.

• Runoff can be a nonpoint or point source origin in streams and can contain fertilizers, nutrients, soil, and bacteria. The overabundance of nutrients and bacteria can be harmful aquatic
• Most effects of nutrients are not direct toxic effects, but from loss of oxygen from “eutrophication.’
• Causes a decrease in oxygen making it harder for sensitive organisms to survive

Organic material is produced by plants consumed by macros then broken down by larger predators and macros are then digested and placed back into soil as the predator species excretes waste

• Chemical pollution
• Septic pollution
• Sedimentation
• Temperature
• Storm water run off
• Salination (salt)
• Channelization/ deforestation
• Land use, gross pollution, runoff from urban areas and agriculture

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• Data is compared to known standards for Water Quality.  Standards have been set by organizations such as the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the United States EPA. Not all chemicals have Standards set (criteria) and MBI has developed assessment benchmarks for important parameters (e.g., nutrients, chloride, and sulfate) used to identify stressors responsible for limiting aquatic life.
• We either give samples to a processing lab or we process some things in house, then we pass off that sample to a lab and which then are analyzed.
• Once results are given to us, we then compile and in tables and graphs. That is later put into the report for our client.

Fish are used as indicators for attainment status of water quality standards in several states as a response to the CWA goal to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” A friend of MBI, Dr. James Karr, was the first to use fish assemblages to help managers meet this goal (1981).

Yes, as long as the person who made payment/paid for the course sends an email message from the email account on record to info@mbieducation.com prior to the start time of the first day of the course. The e-mail must indicate the name, e-mail and phone number of the new participant.

• A diverse group of macro shredders, scrapers, filter feeders, and predators will ensure the nutrient composition is adequate for fish and wildlife consuming fish
• Without a diverse group of macros at the bottom of the food chain, you will be unable to have a diverse group of wildlife at the top of the food chain

pH ranges from a scale of 1 to 14, where values less than 7 are acidic and values greater than 7 are alkaline or basic. Common values to sustain aquatic life lie generally between 6 and 9.

Fish fill nearly every niche in a waterbody. They are predator and prey, detritivores to piscivores. They feed on aquatic macroinvertebrates, zooplankton, detritus, fish, algae, and plants. Mussels use fish to spread glochidia, and numerous species have specialized to the point in which a single mussel species uses a single fish species.

Many fish species also serve as important ecosystem engineers, the spawning redds created by minnows like stonerollers and chubs in the genus Nocomis are used by many other species.

Yes, you can modify or cancel your recurring donation at any time. Simply contact our support team, and they will assist you with the necessary changes. We appreciate your flexibility and support.

An organism with no backbone that lives part or all its life cycle in water and can be seen readily with no magnification

Urban runoff differs from industrial or agricultural sources and consists of sewer system overflows and surface water runoff and can carry dirt, oil, garbage, metals, PAHs and other chemicals, lawn fertilizers, etc. Alterations of flow itself compared to natural flow regimes can cause bank erosion and habitat changes from storm flows and result in lower flows during dry weather that direct affect aquatic life

Stormwater controls include protecting and restoring natural floodplains and other best management practices (infiltration) to decrease runoff towards natural flow regimes in streams. Uncontrolled stormwater can change concentrations of chemicals in rivers and streams when they exceed water quality criteria or other ecological benchmarks

Varied species can survive in different water temperatures. As water temperature increases, the lower the dissolved oxygen. As temperature decreases, stream can generally maintain higher the dissolved oxygen. Ohio has both coldwater and warmwater species