Healthy Wetlands by Gabriela Sullivan, City of Ocala Water Resources Department and Ocala Wetlands Recharge Park

December 2, 2023

December Science Saturday provided students with the opportunity to discover more about local wetlands, such as those found at the Ocala Wetland Recharge Park. Students learned about the services wetlands provide, like water quality improvement and flood control, the macro-invertebrates (bugs) found in water bodies, and how macroinvertebrates can be used to determine water quality and environmental health. They observed living macro-invertebrates and used keys to identify the species. They also took samples from three different streams and used the macro-invertebrates present in their samples to conduct a bio-assessment and determine the water quality of their selected stream.