Genetic Diversity of Rhyacophila fuscula in the upper Susquehanna River drainage basin

Abstract

Macroinvertebrates play an important role in freshwater streams (Luell 2020). Different macroinvertebrates have different tolerances to pollution. There are three main groups that these macroinvertebrates can be categorized into whether they have no tolerance for pollution, moderate pollution tolerance and tolerance to pollution (Luell 2020). These different tolerances allow us to use macroinvertebrates as bioindicators to infer the quality of the stream (Luell 2020; Ab Hamid and Md Rawi 2017). Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) are three orders of macroinvertebrates that are commonly used to assess stream quality (Moskova 2008). This work will focus on members of the order Trichoptera, or caddisflies. Rhyacophila is a genus in the family Rhyacophilidae. The genus can be found in North America, Asia, and Europe (Prather et al. 2001). Across North America there are 126 known species (Prather et al. 2001), 34 of which are present in eastern North America and approximately 19 can be found in New York (Prather et al. 2001). In the larval stage, they are aquatic and become terrestrial as adults. Larvae are found in cold freshwater streams with high levels of dissolved oxygen (Prather et al. 2001). Prather et al. (2001) stated that Rhyacophila are univoltine, meaning that they have one generation per year, although some species are known to have multiple cohorts in the stream at any one time (Manuel and Folsom 1982). In the Susquehanna River basin, Rhyacophila have been found, and are commonly encountered, by SUNY Oneonta classes. Manolo Benitez sampled Cripple Creek for a stream ecology course and morphologically identified the Rhyacophila collected as R. fuscula. The overall goal of this thesis research was to identify the most commonly encountered Rhyacophila species found in the upper Susquehanna River drainage basin and examine the population structure amongst 12 different populations.