Fraser River Estuary Research

My name is Jan and my ARP is focused on the bottom of the food chain in the south arm marshes of the Fraser river estuary. invertebrates live in the sediment and are primary consumers, which are important in bringing solar energy, that was harvested by plants, up the food chain to higher trophic. Juvenile salmon use the marshes as places to feed on the invertebrates and hide until they are large enough to go out to the ocean.

In the past 50 years the south arm marshes have seen the arrival of the european cattail which is an invasive plant species known for growing in large monotypic stands. The cattail is highly competitive making it difficult for native plant species to grow in these stands. My ARP is aimed at determining what impacts this invasive cattail is having on the local invertebrate communities.

To determine invertebrate community composition and diversity I took 50 sediment cores 25 from invasive cattail stands and 25 from native vegetation dominated areas. The cores were sifted to remove the sediment and leave only the invertebrates and the organic materials for analysis. The samples are then going to be sent off to a lab to determine what invertebrates are in each core as well as the number of each invertebrate.