Data: Vernier Probes

Environmental Variable	Canal Water		Beach Water	Pond Water
Dissolved Oxygen	12.7 mg/L		12.9 mg/L	12.9 mg/L
Carbon Dioxide	10,022 ppm		10,047 ppm	10,024 ppm
pH	6.07		6.75	7.72
Temperature		22 degrees C	22.6 degrees C		22.9 degrees C
Diversity of Micro and Macro invertebrates		Elosa, Bosima	Polyarthra, Rotaria		Rotaria, Calanoid type
Color of Water		Clear	Light yellow/clear		A tint of yellow, but mostly clear

Data: Gross and Net Productivity/Respiration Rate (Class Data)

Percent Light	Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)	Gross Productivity	Net Productivity	Gross Productivity (mg/C/m^3)
Initial	0.2	___________	___________	___________
Dark	0.9	___________	___________	___________
100%	.4	-.5	.2	.00015
65%	.05	-.85	-.15	.000187
25%	.025	-.875	-.175	.000009
10%	.15	-.75	-.05	.000056
2%	1.15	.25	.95	.00043

Data: Experiment #2 (Our Data)

Team	Water Sample	# Light Screens	Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)	% Saturation
2	canal	0 screens (100%)	.4	7%

Data: Experiment #2 (Class Data)

Team	Water Sample	# Light Screens	Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)	% Saturation
1	canal	initial	.2	6%
1	canal	foil	.9	11%
2	canal	0 screens (100%)	.4	7%
3	canal	1 screen (65%)	.05	6%
4	canal	3 screens (25%)	.025	.1%
5	canal	5 screens (10%)	.15	2%
6	canal	8 screens (2%)	1.15
7	beach	initial	.5
7	beach	foil	.375
8	beach	0 screens (100%)	1	11%
9	beach	1 screen (65%)	.65	8%
10	beach	3 screens (25%)	.6	32%
11	beach	5 screens (10%)	.18
12	beach	8 screens (2%)	.26

Data: Experiment #1 (Our Data)

Team	Water Sample	Temp (Degrees C)	Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)	% Saturation
2	canal	22	.4	7%

Data: Experiment #1 (Class Data)

Team	Water Sample	Temp (degrees C)	Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)	% Saturation
1	canal	10	.5	6%
2	canal	22	.4	7%
3	canal	14	1.2	12%
4	canal	22	.6	8%
5	canal	14	1.2	12.5%
6	canal	23.2	.9	13%
7	beach	8	.57	5%
8	beach	22.5	.7	9%
9	beach	22.5	.9	11%
10	beach	9	.6	11%
11	beach	22.5	.79	8%
12	beach	12	.84	8%

Analysis

Experiment #1 (temperature):

Though are results may not have been completely accurate due to excess oxygen from air bubbles and the buckets of samples sitting out for a period of time, much can still be said about our results. 

-Concerning salinity, our fresh canal water had a greater amount of dissolved oxygen than the salty beach water. The average percent of oxygen saturation of the canal water was 9.75% and the average saturation for the beach water was approximately 8.6%. These results make sense because the lower salinity levels, the more dissolved oxygen is in water. 

-While testing the canal and beach water at different temperatures, we found that the average percent saturation of the cold canal water was 10.3%. This was significantly higher than the canal water at average temperature with an average percent saturation of 9%. Results were similar for the different beach temperatures. The iced beach water had an average percent saturation of 9%. The beach water at average temperature was 8%, which is also much less than the cold water. This shows that cold water is beneficial for water because it is able to hold a greater amount of dissolved oxygen.

Experiment #2 (light):
-For the screen experiment, the results showed that as you add more screens to the water samples, the amount of dissolved oxygen decreases. This shows the importance of sunlight to water because without the proper amount of sunlight, plants can’t perform photosynthesis, which limits the amount of oxygen released as a byproduct.

Vernier Probes:
-Overall, the pond, beach, and canal samples had fairly close dissolved oxygen levels at around 12.9 mg/L. The canal water did vary slightly with 12.7 mg/L. In addition, the carbon dioxide levels were fairly similar as well with the beach water having a slightly higher level. This shows that the amount of respiration releasing carbon dioxide and the amount of photosynthesis occurring in each sample are fairly similar.

Diversity of Organisms:
-We did find around 2 species of organisms in each sample which makes sense because the amount of carbon dioxide due to the respiration of organisms is about the same in all of the samples.

 

Vernier vs. Winkler

The first method we did, otherwise known as the Winkler Method, was a lot less accurate than the Vernier Method. This is because there was a lot of room for error and not every measurement was completely exact. The Winkler Method included many steps with exact measurements, which can lead to many errors in the experiment. For example, if we needed eight drops of alkaline iodide into the sample bottle, it was very easy to drop more than the needed amount into the solution. This method was also very time consuming because there were many steps to complete before getting the amount of dissolved oxygen. The Vernier method was much more affective and time efficient because the probe shows exact results to the hundredths place and we got a reading within a few seconds.

Conclusions

Our class concluded that the highest amounts of dissolved oxygen occurred in the canal water. This is probably because pond water does not contain any salt that would reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen, while still having the current that allows oxygen to absorb into the water. In both the beach and canal water, the amount of dissolved oxygen was the highest in the water in the ice baths.
Our class also concluded that as the number of screens increased, the amount of dissolved oxygen goes down because of the low amount of sunlight being let in to preform photosynthesis. There were a few groups that did not match this conclusion, but could have been resulted from an air bubble in their bottle or a flaw in calculating the amount of dissolved oxygen.

This data is important for many different businesses and government agencies. Fishermen would greatly benefit from this information because areas with low dissolved oxygen contain few, if any, fish. They would benefit by knowing areas where there is a high amount of dissolved oxygen in the water so they know where to fish. Also, many conservation companies would benefit from this information because dissolved oxygen is a main component of whether or not a fish population can survive in an area. If the dissolved oxygen is low, then conservation companies need to find the reason for the low quantities of oxygen and help reverse it before fish populations begin to die out in the area. Another group that would use this information is land developers because they need to know where the proper place to build is. We realized that a lot of grassy area surrounding a body of water could be beneficial in increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen, so they need to know the amount of dissolved oxygen so they know areas where they can build from areas that can be dangerous to the oxygen level. Water treatment companies also need to know this information so they can distinguish which areas are the most polluted and need the most attention to return the oxygen count back to a normal amount.

Local Businesses Utilizing Similar Information

-The Middlesex Health Department definitely uses this kind of information to conduct their water pollution control programs. They frequently test surface water for quality and for the amount of sewage in order to know when its important to take action. If they see that an area has a low level of dissolved oxygen due to pollution blocking out sunlight and killing photosynthesizing plants, they can decide whether they need to monitor sewage disposal as well as determine if they need to watch over any possible sources of the water contamination.

-Environment NJ is doing its best to limit the amount of building that occurs near NJ waters. They hope to prevent major roads from being built near water sources. By testing the amount of dissolved oxygen in certain areas of water, they can determine if the water can handle possible pollutants like carbon dioxide which could further alter dissolved oxygen amounts.  In addition, they try to limit the amount of pollution given off by industries that could potentially kill wildlife, decrease photosynthesis, and therefore decrease the amount of dissolved oxygen and productivity in an area.


-The NJ Department of agriculture monitors soil erosion and sediments that get into water. It is important for them to monitor the amount of dissolved oxygen because sediments and dirt can limit the amount of sunlight that gets into water, which decreases the amount of photosynthesis and decreases oxygen levels. This affect can be dire to species that live in or around the effected water.

-Fisherman at Union Lake in southern New Jersey monitor the dissolved oxygen count at the lake to determine if that area would be a quality place to fish. They can tell if the dissolved oxygen count is too low then fish will not be able to live there, so testing to see beforehand can save them a lot of time and money by only fishing where there is high amount of dissolved oxygen.

Conservational Plan

Step One: Control the amount of litter and pollution around bodies of water by cleaning up litter and adding trash cans around the lake. By adding trash cans, the amount of litter in lakes and ponds would be reduced because it would convince people to throw away their trash if it was more convenient


Step Two: Regulate the amount of homes and businesses being built around the area and make it more difficult for homes to be built around bodies of water. Homes can lead to many problems for lakes and ponds because homes cause emissions to be released into the air. These emissions, such as CO2 can absorb into the water with a current and cause a low amount of oxygen in the area. Also, with large corporations, it is important to manage them because sometimes waste products are dumped into the rivers they are near which causes harmful pollutions to the water and low amounts of oxygen. 


Step Three: Constantly take temperature readings because high temperatures result in a low amount of dissolved oxygen in the water. It is important to watch that the temperature does not go to high, because if it does the dissolve oxygen count will go below normal making it impossible for fish to live there within a matter of days.


Step Four: Manage the amount of plankton and organisms living on the surface of the water. This can be potentially dangerous for the amount of dissolved oxygen because the organisms do not allow sunlight to go through when there is an abundance on the top of the water. This prevents photosynthesis from happening which results in a low amount of oxygen in the water.


Step Five: Maintaining the amount of sunlight by removing large objects such has buildings, bridges, and trees. the shady areas that these factors create limits the amount of sunlight able to get through. Without sunlight, plants will not be able to grow and preform photosynthesis, which releases oxygen to the water.

Citations

Borough of Metuchen, Initials. (n.d.). Thomas park. 
          Retrieved from http://www.metuchennj.org/thomas_park.html 


Clean water agenda. (n.d.). 
         Retrieved fromhttp://www.environmentnewjersey.org/clean-water/clean-water-agenda-      details


Soil and water conservation. (1996).
          Retrieved fromhttp://www.nj.gov/agriculture/divisions/anr/nrc/soil.html


Von Brandt, Steve. (n.d.). Union lake new jersey.                                                                                                Retrieved from http://www.1fghp.com/fishing_guide_articles/article8.html 


Water pollution control program. (n.d.). 
           Retrieved fromhttp://www.co.middlesex.nj.us/publichealth/water.asp