The Western Prairie Audubon Society will present research scientist Manisha Pant on Jan. 12 at 7 p.m. at Macomb City Hall.
Pant, a researcher at the Illinois River Biological Station, will discuss “Aquatic Invertebrates: Tiny River Creatures, Big Ecological Clues.”
Since 2023, Pant has led the macroinvertebrate monitoring program for the Upper Mississippi River Restoration Program’s Long Term Resource Monitoring initiative. The Illinois River Biological Station restarted the program in 2023 after nearly 20 years.
“Long-term sampling is the cornerstone of ecosystem health monitoring,” Pant said in her presentation summary.
She will explain how researchers collect, identify and count tiny river creatures to assess water quality and ecosystem health. Pant also plans to share recent findings from the survey.
Pant earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Eastern Illinois University, where she studied stream restoration effects on fish and invertebrates. She previously worked at Virginia Institute of Marine Science, managing data collection from coastal ecosystems along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.
The presentation is free and open to the public.
