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SFS Annual Meeting

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COLLECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MACROINVERTEBRATES IN AND AROUND MONTEZUMA WELL

We conducted a Bioblitz at Montezuma Well May 20th and 21st 2016, in collaboration with the Montezuma Castle National Monument for their Centennial celebration. Montezuma Well’s unique water chemistry has made it an area of intense study in the Southwest, but only its plant and vertebrate life have been fully cataloged. This event provided an opportunity for our group to fully survey the invertebrates living in this national park. We collected and identified on-the-spot or in the laboratory, terrestrial and aquatic macroinvertebrates from the cave (N=9), meadow (N=65), irrigation ditch (N=53), outlet (N=198), Beaver Creek (N=104), and picnic area (N=15). Our collecting methods included the use of beating sheets, light traps, aspirators, nets, and hand collection. We preserved specimens in 70% or 95% ethanol and took pictures of them in the field and in the laboratory. We collected over 620 samples which have been identified to some 24 orders in 4 phyla; three Annelida, one in Platyhelminthes, 18 in Arthropoda, and two in Mollusca.

Rebecca Beresic-Perrins ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, rkb32@nau.edu;


James Boothroyd ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, jcb395@nau.edu;


Chris Wirth ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, ccw227@nau.edu;


Kim Whitely ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, Kaw66@nau.edu;


Tina Greenawalt ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), NPS Montezuma Castle NM, Tina_greenawalt@nps.gov;


Bonnie Bain (Primary Presenter/Author, Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Dixie State University, bain@dixie.edu;


Fredric Govedich ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Southern Utah University, govedich@suu.edu;


Samuel Wells ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Southern Utah University, samuelwells@suu.edu;


William Heyborne ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Southern Utah University, williamheyborne@suu.edu;


Stephen Shuster ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, stephen.shuster@nau.edu;