Daphnia Magna

Daphnia Magna

Daphnia magna is a kind of a freshwater water flea, commonly know as Daphnia. It is a inhabitant of northern and western North America. It is also found in some regions of Africa and Asia. Daphnia magna is widely used as a laboratory animal for testing ecotoxicity and other marine and ecological related tests. Einar Neumann was the first person to use Daphnia Magna in the laboratory tests in 1934 (Neumann, 421).

Advantages of Daphnia Magna

Daphnia magna is a very good representative in ecological tests due to many reasons. The most convenient reason is that Daphnia magna are very small in size of just around five mm. The life span of Daphnia magna is very short of about two months maximum. Daphnias are easy to nourish and breed, as they only require water, containing bacteria, which are their main food (winner, 153-155). They can be grown in large quantity in aquariums and individually in small bottles or water containers. Their breeding is very fast. They give birth within first week of their life and then after every two or three days for the rest of their life, with an average of more than twenty babies in each brood (Adema, 125). Furthermore, daphnia magna are kind of those animals that are serves as food for many fishes, especially for the young ones (Baird, 399). On the other hand, fishes do not live for long period in specific water. They migrate to different areas and regions due to the supply of the food, whereas daphnia magna live in one particular are through out their lives. For these reasons, daphnia magna are commonly used to obtain satisfactory results in water testing for toxic materials (Soares et al, 1477).

Deckers Creek in West Virginia

Deckers Creek is a beautiful stream in the Monongahela River in north central West Virginia. Deckers Creek is filled with boulders, rockslides and waterfalls. Several pollutants have degraded Deckers creek over the years, which includes acid mine drainage (AMD), heavy metals, garbage, bacteria from sewage disposals, sediment, and general abandonment, which negatively affect the creek.  Out of these factors the major threat is the acid mine drainage (Mains, 44). Deckers Creek contains large number of daphnia magna and has quit acidic water due to the AMD.

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)is caused due to dumping of coalmines and disturbance in earth such as construction of buildings and roads not only destroys the environmental quality of Deckers Creek but also converts the waters orange or red in color and creates an acidic conditions in the water in which fishes and macro invertebrates such as Daphnia magna cannot live (Gray, 358). Temperatures reach 117 degrees Fahrenheit equivalent to 47 °C in acid mine drainage systems, and the pH can decrease to lowest -3.6. Organisms can thrive in waters when pH value is close to zero, whereas the value goes negative when concentration of acid increases due to the evaporation of water (Havas, 1741).

Hypoxia, or low oxygen levels

Hypoxia, or low oxygen levels, is ...