Didymo Update 2016

Susan C. Peterson

Environmental Analyst 3

Watersheds/Lakes/NPS Program

Planning & Standards Division

Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
79 Elm Street, Hartford, CT 06106-5127
P: 860.424.3854|E: Susan.Peterson@ct.gov

www.ct.gov/deep

Conserving, improving and protecting our natural resources and environment;

Ensuring a clean, affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy supply.

Watershed Management website: http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2719&q=325628&deepNav_GID=1654

Nonpoint Source Pollution Management website:

http://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2719&q=325588&deepNav_GID=1654

From: Beauchene, Mike

Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2016 3:10 PM
To: Beauchene, Mike
Subject: update on Didymo and other snot

I am guessing that you many have heard something about Rock Snot recently. I am sending this email, as someone who is interested in the Farmington River, as an update. The attached documents include a summary of what we know to date (update on rock snot 04042016.pdf), an updated brochure (new didymo brochure) and our two published papers.

In a nutshell this has been a very interesting story to date. We have observed and documented 3 types of “rock snot” within the West Branch Farmington River since the initial report and sample in March of 2011. Two of these species belong to the genus Didymosphenia. The most well-known is D. geminata with an active bloom upstream of the confluence of the Still River in Riverton. The second is a new species to the world, D. hullii. As we were collecting and documenting the bloom in 2013 (which we thought was D. geminata) Diba’s morphological and genetic work led us to ask the worlds Didymo experts what they thought. The consensus; the species was not D. geminata and in fact had never been described before (so we have our own special species). Neither Didymo species seem to be problematic at this time.

The third belongs to the genus Cymbella. While scouring the River for Didymo in the summer of 2013, we found what we thought once again was D. geminata. Morphological work confirmed the species was C. janishii, a diatom endemic to the pacific northwest. Until our work, this species has only been observed east of the Rocky Mountains once (New York).

During summer 2015, many anglers alerted us to a massive bloom of Didymo in the Farmington River in July and August. As this is not the typical time for a bloom and we have not observed Didymo blooming outside of the area in Riverton, we were very skeptical. Samples were collected and the bloom was C. janisichii not Didymo. AsC. janisichii has a wider range of nutrient and temperature preferences than Didymo, we will continue to monitor future blooms and to educate the public about potential transfer to other river systems.

Please feel free to share this info with your constituents and contact me should you have any questions and thank you for helping to get the word out regarding Check, Clean, and Dry.

Mike Beauchene

Supervising Fisheries Biologist

CT Aquatic Resources Education (CARE) & Fisheries Program Support

Inland Fisheries Division

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
79 Elm Street, Hartford, CT 06106-5127 .

P: 860.424.4185|F: 860.424.4070 |E: mike.beauchene@ct.gov

Celebrating 150 Years of Natural Resource Conservation

www.ct.gov/deep

Conserving, improving and protecting our natural resources and environment;

Ensuring a clean, affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy supply.

https://lowerfarmingtonriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Update-on-Rock-snot-04042016.pdf

https://lowerfarmingtonriver.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/new-didymo-brochure.pdf