What is a biotic community, and how does that impact a watershed?

 Preston Brook Watershed Special Characteristics Exploration: 

When looking at the relatively small Preston Brook watershed, we need to understand what components actually make up a watershed. Healthy watersheds include the following (to some variable scale): “intact and functioning headwater streams, floodplains, riparian corridors, biotic refugia, instream habitat, and biotic communities; natural vegetation in the landscape; and hydrology, sediment transport, fluvial geomorphology, and disturbance regimes expected for its location” (US EPA). It is certainly much easier to dive into these components in a larger watershed like the Mississippi, but it might be much more impactful to understand a local, small watershed. For now, let us get into the nitty gritty of one of the healthy watershed components for the Preston Brook Watershed: biotic communities.

Biotic communities are the biotic factors that are working within the watershed. When studying the health of a watershed, it can be easy to overlook all of the biotic factors at play– there is more than just the fish in the stream or the water grasses around the shore of the river, there is a whole watershed of life that relies on the water source! Preston Brook has a watershed boundary of 10.9 miles, which is a decently small area but it is packed with biotic communities.

 Preston Brook is a watershed offshoot of the larger Winooski River, so there is plenty of biotic community mingling! Some of the wildlife that calls the Preston Brook watershed home are waterfowl like Canada geese and mallards; birds like hawks and goldfinches; and mammals like muskrats, beavers, water shrews, raccoons, foxes, skunks, and other common New England creatures (“Plants and Animals”). There are also species of frog, snakes, turtles, and toads that live in the Preston Brook watershed (“Plants and Animals”). Within the water, there are macroinvertebrates like crayfish and dragonflies that play important roles in aquatic food webs (“Plants and Animals”).

While it might be easy to forget some of the creatures of a watershed that are not obvious (like fish in a stream), that does not mean that their roles are without value. Removing species from watersheds or negatively impacting their quality of life could have harmful effects on the health of the watershed, as the ecosystem would not be functioning at its fullest capacity (“Plants and Animals”). 

Works Cited

“Plants and Animals.” Friends of the Winooski, winooskiriver.org/plants-and-animals.

US EPA, OW. “Basic Information and Answers to Frequent Questions.” US EPA, 25 June 2015, www.epa.gov/hwp/basic-information-and-answers-frequent-questions.