Declines in water quality in Erie County streams are usually a result of industrial, agricultural or even residential pollution, typically resulting in high nutrient levels and decreased biodiversity. This project observes how nutrient levels and seasonal changes affect the nutritional quality, enzyme function, and fatty acid concentration of algal communities in several Erie County streams. As biological indicators, algae are used in many types of water quality assessments and also make up the base of the aquatic food web. In this study, enzyme activity of algal phosphatase, as well as algal fatty acid concentration, were quantified. Results suggested that enzyme activity and fatty acid composition could be good indicators of the importance of algae in an aquatic ecosystem. Enzyme activity showed a gradual but significant increase with seasonal change, and fatty acid levels correlated with amount of human activity. Overall stream ecosystem quality was found to be affected by human activity.
