English Creek, Polk/Hillsborough Counties. Alafia River Watershed

A field biorecon, short for bioreconnaissance, was performed in English Creek in order to gain further information on the ecological health of the watershed for use in the administration of Florida's Ecosystem Management Water Quality Assessment (EMWQAS) and Total Maximum Daily Loads programs. Surface water samples were also collected. All work conducted by EMWQAS was conducted according to established DEP standard operating procedures and quality assurance plans. Biorecons are based on three measurements of the aquatic invertebrates present in the stream: the total number of different species (Total Taxa), the number of "good water quality" indicator species (Florida Index) and the total number of Ephemeroptera (mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies) and Trichoptera (caddisflies) species present. A stream scoring above the threshold value for all three of these measurements is considered healthy. If two of the threshold values are reached, the stream's health is considered ecologically suspect. If only one or none of the thresholds are reached, an impaired condition is concluded.