World Wildlife Fund launches program to collect information on Ottawa River insects

By Natalie Harmsen

The Ottawa River is about to investigate some of its creepy-crawly inhabitants in the name of environmental reform.

The World Wildlife Fund Canada launched a new program in September, which will rely on the dedication of volunteers to assess the health of the Ottawa River.

The WWF-Canada’s new citizen science program will use local participants for community-based monitoring in order to collect information on the different species of bugs such as beetles, snails and flies inhabiting the river.

Citizens will gather samples of these freshwater microorganisms to provide researchers with data aimed at helping to reverse the decline in the health of freshwater sites.

The insects are indicator species because they are very sensitive to changes in the ecosystem, said WWF-Canada. Analyzing them will show how much pollution is contained in the water.

WWF-Canada has partnered with Living Lakes Canada and researchers at the University of Guelph and Environment and Climate Change Canada, to use environmental DNA (eDNA) technology to identify the species in the water samples. The findings will then be sent to the University of Guelph to be scanned, and the results will be added to a species database.

This program is part of an effort to tackle the deficiency of information on freshwater ecosystems, which is integral to assessing the impact of humans on the health of the water, according to WWF-Canada.