Sea grass Project - Seaira

This post pertains to both my field work experience at the Tomoka River Boat Club, and my research regarding sea grass.

While on the boat taking samples last week I was thinking about how I wanted to use the data we collected that day. I decided that I wanted to compare the water's pH to the amount of dissolved phosphates present in the water. Through my research I discovered that generally when the water pH is more acidic there are more phosphates present in the water. I wanted to test this based on the data we collected in class. As I mentioned in my last post algae blooms are aided by high levels of nitrogen, and phosphates, and minimal oxygen. Algae blooms affect sea grass habitats, and block sunlight inhibiting photosynthesis, thus reducing the amount of dissolved oxygen present in the water. While in the field we sampled 5 sites throughout the river, and the connecting mouth to the ocean. To test the pH I used a HACH HD113 ph meter which was a small hand held instrument attached to a wand, which when lowered into the water gave us a pH reading.

 Testing the water for the dissolved phosphates was a little more involved.

 A sample was taken, and poured over a filter into an Erlenmeyer flask set up, from here the filter is rinsed with distilled water and the dissolved solids remain on the filter. A hand vacuum, apposed to the electric one we used in class, is used to create suction to pull all over the water through the filter. From there the filter and its dissolved solids are quickly placed into the HACH DR 1890 colorimeter, when will then read the phosphate levels.

When I got back from the field I created a graph comparing water pH levels to dissolved phosphates.I thought that the more acidic the water the higher levels of phosphates I would find, but my hypothesis was incorrect. There was not a strong positive correlation between the two measurements, which is shown by the low R^2 value.  In the near future I would like to create a graph to compare dissolved oxygen levels to dissolved phosphates. I would also like to possibly take more samples regarding dissolved nutrients in locations directly within sea grass habitats.