As mentioned
during last week's class, I plan to collect sediment samples and survey beaches
for plastic pellets on Florida's West and East coast. For easy comparison of
the amount of pellets found at each beach and on each coast, I am thinking of
having several graphs such as the ones below.
One bar
graph for each coast to identify if a specific area on one coast has more
pellets than the others:
A pie
chart that compares the two coasts in order to identify if one coast has more
pellets than the other:
As you
can see, I am trying to decide between using amount of pellets versus overall
percentage of pellets found. What do you think is better?
In
addition to pondering what graphs to use, I've been trying to figure out what
type of containers I should use for my samples. In the event that I find enough
pellets at one location (100 pellets are required), I'd like to mail them to a
laboratory to be tested for pollutants. In order to not cross-contaminate the
plastic pellets with chemicals from a plastic container, I searched the isles
of my local stores and came across wooden boxes, cotton bags, glass Tupperware,
and finally found this awesome set of quart-sized jars:
The nice
thing about these jars is that along the side of them they have measurements
like a measuring cup. I need to decide by Saturday if I want to end up
filtering through 12+ quarts of sand or if I only want to take 2 cup samples.
I don't know how many water samples you are going to have, but maybe you could contact the county or another college and see if they would like to participate. You could label the samples so that only you know where they came from, until after the study is complete.
ReplyDeleteThey pint sized mason jars as well.They also have measurements on them. They also have jelly jars which are smaller than pint.
ReplyDeleteLast weeks class was the first time I heard of plastic pellets in the water and on beaches. I am still unaware of where these pellets come from and how big they are. I am interested in learning more about these pellets, along with their effects they have on the oceans. I am excited to hear about the information you find with these pellets during your research project.
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