This past week I have spent some time on my project about copper. From what I have found out so far is that anything above 0.05mg/L of copper is not naturally occurring in our ground water. Also that over 1.3mg/L is considered harmful to people by the EPA. The EPA say that this level of copper can cause gastrointestinal distress in the short term, the long effects can be liver or kidney damage. These are the effects on humans, the effects on some fish and plant life occur at much lower levels. There are treatment options to lower the amount of copper in the water, but from what I have studied the best way to reduce the amount of copper in the water is by not using copper based fungicides that end up in water run off. I know that copper fungicides work great in our Florida ecosystem on the orange trees. But they maybe something less harmful out there that could be used instead. I am looking forward to going out and collecting the data to see what the copper levels in the Tomoka River. I am still lost on my scientific question for my project tho. So far this is what I have: Is inland copper transported to coastal areas via the Tomoka river? Or I was thinking: Are copper levels higher inland waterways vs coastal? Hopefully as I continue to learn more about copper in our ecosystem my question will improve.
IMES
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Cathy, UR, Information about copper
This past week I have spent some time on my project about copper. From what I have found out so far is that anything above 0.05mg/L of copper is not naturally occurring in our ground water. Also that over 1.3mg/L is considered harmful to people by the EPA. The EPA say that this level of copper can cause gastrointestinal distress in the short term, the long effects can be liver or kidney damage. These are the effects on humans, the effects on some fish and plant life occur at much lower levels. There are treatment options to lower the amount of copper in the water, but from what I have studied the best way to reduce the amount of copper in the water is by not using copper based fungicides that end up in water run off. I know that copper fungicides work great in our Florida ecosystem on the orange trees. But they maybe something less harmful out there that could be used instead. I am looking forward to going out and collecting the data to see what the copper levels in the Tomoka River. I am still lost on my scientific question for my project tho. So far this is what I have: Is inland copper transported to coastal areas via the Tomoka river? Or I was thinking: Are copper levels higher inland waterways vs coastal? Hopefully as I continue to learn more about copper in our ecosystem my question will improve.
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Is the copper used by the orange industry coming at a price to the ecosystem?... Just spit balling but I am excited to see what happens (Sorry Dr. Woodall I like to give kudos) I am also going to look for traces of copper in the lakes (retention ponds). Do you have an idea of when you will be testing for the copper? Are you going to different locations in the Tomoka River (the mouth, etc), or even different waterways? Nice that we got to use those instruments last Friday, kind of gives us an idea of what we will be doing and recording for our projects.
ReplyDeleteI plan on going out on the boat with Dr. Woodall in April and testing different locations in the river from inland to the mouth. I am not sure if the use of copper comes at a price yet, one because I am unsure of the levels of copper and two I do not know how much copper they use or how often. Their is still much to learn.
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