Diatoms are a specific type of single-celled, eukaryotic alga that live in aquatic habitats. For quite a few years diatoms have been used to measure water quality of the environments they inhabit. In 2017, a wildfire occurred near Brian Head, Utah. Water quality for the Brian Head area and its surrounding cities, including Cedar City, UT, may have declined due to the environmental toll of the 100 square mile wild fire. The aim for this project is to identify diatom communities in the local rivers and streams to assess water quality. Diatoms are useful for assessing water quality because species that thrive in unpolluted, healthy water are different from those that thrive in polluted water. When the water becomes heavily polluted, diatom populations should decrease. By identifying diatom communities at various points in the local area we will be able to diagnose the quality of the water in the rivers and streams. To identify the diatom communities, we will be using Next-Generation Sequencing technology, or NGS. NGS is a far more efficient sequencing technique than what has been used in the past and will allow us to sequence multiple diatom genomes at the same time. NGS is useful for this project because we are assessing water quality by looking at diatom community abundance and not necessarily any specific diatom species. Our goal is to develop quantitative molecular indices that correlate with water quality in southern Utah. Water quality indices can be used to help the community determine when streams have recovered from the wildfire.
