Abigail Belvin: Pollution affects aquatic plants, insects—and us

This photo shows a smiling young white woman wearing a baseball cap and an orange v-neck t-shirt. She is holding in one muddy hand a small turtle. — Virginia Tech Department of Entomology graduate student Abigail Belvin loves sharing her enthusiasm for aquatic organisms. Photo courtesy of Abigail Belvin.

The following story was written in November 2021 by Elaine White in ENGL 4824: Science Writing as part of a collaboration between the English department and the Center for Communicating Science.

Do you ever catch yourself thinking about bugs? Do you wonder what the creepy-crawly insects are that live in streams and ponds? Instead of looking for turtles or fish, the next time you’re near water see if you can catch any aquatic insects: Wandering Gliders, Ruddy Darters, Azure Damselflies, and the Scarlet Skimmer are just a few of the critters you may encounter.

To some of us, bugs are gross—but Abigail Belvin is here to tell you why they are important. Belvin, a second-year Ph.D. student in Virginia Tech's entomology department, is investigating how regulatory strategies, such as agricultural best management practices (BMPs), affect aquatic insect communities in the streams across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Those effects are important because insects, especially aquatic insects, are essential to our environment, she says.

Aquatic insects, such as damselflies, feed the fish in our streams and process organic matter. Aquatic insects break down decaying leaves and excrete the matter into streams. Other organisms downstream use these excretions for food and other processes.

“Aquatic insects are really important in terms of providing food sources,” says Belvin, “and they are also important for transferring nutrients from the trees to the streams.”

Important to Belvin’s research is the implementation of best management practices, or BMPs. BMPs include environmentally-friendly practices designed to reduce pollution. Some familiar BMPs include using fertilizers and pesticides according to directions and only when needed and ensuring that household chemicals are disposed of properly. Belvin is interested in how BMPs affect macroinvertebrates, primarily insects in their nymphal and larval stages.

To gain an understanding of this relationship between BMPs and aquatic insects, Belvin does site work in streams, where she collects and processes samples of the insects living there. After collecting and analyzing the samples, Belvin writes operating procedures, grant proposals, and manuscripts about her research processes and her discoveries.

One aspect of Belvin’s research is communicating her findings to local farmers, and she finds that aquatic insects provide her with a special way to connect to people. Her love for and knowledge about bugs like damselflies and dragonflies provides an opening to further conversation.

“Most people haven’t seen aquatic insects,” Belvin explained. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in streams sampling and little kids will walk up with their parents and be like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I’ll say, ‘Oh, I’m catching bugs,’ and they will go ‘Whoa!’ in amazement.”

This photo shows a white person with medium long dark hair wearing chest waders and and a white baseball cap. She is standing in a small stream, approximately 4 feet in width, with a net submerged in the water. Grasses and a tree line the stream banks. — The aquatic organisms Belvin finds in farmland streams indicate the health of the stream ecosystem. Photo courtesy of Abigail Belvin.

Belvin is passionate about helping low-income communities and people understand environmental science and about communicating her research to them. A fond memory for Belvin was when she had the opportunity to show the nephew of one of her landowners some aquatic bugs. That human aspect of Belvin’s research—having the chance to connect and education people about environmental science--is what motivates her to do her work.

“What motivates me is connecting with people, helping people, and a very intense love for the environment,” she said. “I am doing what I do to help people who don't have a voice right now, to help them gain a voice and speak for themselves in terms of environmental science and policy.”

Many people do not realize the impact they have on the environment and our creepy-crawly little friends–and their own water supplies. If freshwater streams are not well maintained and healthy, it can affect people’s freshwater access, specifically low-income communities. When large farmers upstream are not careful about what they place in their soil and water, soil run-off can carry pollutants downstream and affect the plants and animals—including humans—living there. People need to be educated on what they put into streams, Belvin said. Her research can help farmers by providing information about whether their farming practices are maintaining healthy soils and water.

One of the most important ways human actions have hurt aquatic insects is through temperature change, Belvin says.

“A lot of insect emergence is dependent on temperature,” she explains, “so when you have temperature change it can alter when larval insects emerge and when they lay their eggs. If the insects emerge too early, they will not be able to find a mate and will die before reproducing.” A large part of this problem is attributed to climate change, and how humans are more directly affecting streams is also apparent in Belvin’s research.

Aquatic insects are an essential part of the functioning of ecosystems. Belvin says that it is humans’ job to protect them. People must be “proactive and not reactive when it comes to environmental policy and taking care of the environment,” she says, “because once you lose something, you can't get it back.”