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| Look at the color difference |
This past week in the lab was a little interesting. I finished my lab project which consisted of finding if pesticides affect the physical appearance of seagrass. Thankfully my hypothesis was correct when all said and done, but it wasn't the exact outcome I expected. I did notice with the larger quantities of pesticides in each fish tank there was a greater change than those without as much. It was interesting to see that how such a large change could happen in only a weeks time period. There were a few hiccups along the way, but like with any lab project there is a potential somethings could go wrong.
This week I will review my data, make my graphs, and also finish my powerpoint so it will be ready to go on May 9th.
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| Go slow! There are manatees! |
Along with finishing my lab project this week, I assisted Cathy (along with Dr. Woodall and Skylar) on the school boat to collect data for her lab project. The day started off with a few clouds in the sky with some suspected shower storms in the afternoon. All together we collected 13 samples when all said and done, but we weren't able to test any of the samples on the boat due to bad weather conditions. The weather was so bad at one point that we had to tie up the boat and stand under somebody's porch until the thunder went away. We continued on after the weather cleared up in a few places. We found her samples in the
Tomoka River in various locations such as near houses, in the middle of the river, and also near the dock where we had the boat tied up. The group also took a trip to the
Tomoka State Park and took a few samples in the park as well. We even saw a few deer, and spotted a redhead woodpecker! Overall it was a good experience and I can't wait to see what the outcome of her project is.
Nice post, Erin. I would like to know more about the species of seagrass you used in your research project. What is the genus/species and is this seagrass found in the IRL?
ReplyDeleteOther questions I have...why did you select this poison? Is it something that might be used in proximity to the IRL? How might it enter the IRL system? Do you think that the concentrations you used in your research experiment fairly represents what might be found in real-world conditions?
ReplyDeleteOk so--in response to your accusation after tonight's movie that I hadn't made any comments on your post---HA!! Guess I did---just didn't remember that I did. NOW--answer these questions :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat type of graph do you plan on using to show your data? Did the change in the sea grass happen at a constant rate?
ReplyDeleteProfessor Woodall, the scientific name of the type of seagrass that I used in my project is caulerpa prolifera (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_prolifera). It has been stated in a published study (http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CZIC-qk569-c37-w55-1988/html/CZIC-qk569-c37-w55-1988.htm) that there was this type of seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon at one point, but from other sources that I have read I do believe that there is still some growing there. I decided to chose that type of poison (which the name of it is Spectracide) in my project because it was the number one recommended pesticide that home depot sold. Since it was number one I decided to chose that due to the fact of anybody who is looking for a type of pesticide to use in their home might chose that one in specific because it is able to be used in the home and the outdoors. Usually, pesticides and any other type of material things such as garbage, sewage, etc. can be transferred into the water ways by runoff. I was reading on the directions that it said specifically not to allow the pesticide to enter or run off into storm drains, drainage, gutters because the product is toxic to fish and other aquatic animals. On a small scale (such as my lab project) and large scale (such as the local water ways) I feel that the amount of pesticide I used in each of the fish tanks were not comparable to how much pesticides are actually released in the water ways. There was an incident that happened in October a few years back where there was a company that was dumping polluted water into lake okeechobee and being transferred into the south end of the IRL. According to the article, the water from the lake accounted for about 2/3rds of the 216 billion gallons of water that flowed through the river that year. So the simple answer to your question is yes, I do feel that the amount that I used or more could be compared to the larger scale of things.
ReplyDeleteCathy, I decided that I was going to use a bar graph to show the relationship between salinity, the pesticide, and the overall appearance of the seagrass from start to finish. The seagrass did change at a constant rate, but it wasn't the outcome that I expected. I knew that the seagrass would darken (as shown in my blog post), but it also started to disintegrate, have blotchy dark spots on some pieces, striped pieces, clear pieces, and in some cases the color stayed the same. It was very interesting to me that my hypothesis came true but it also went a step further than what I was expecting.
Erin--very nice job of responding to your questions. My only challenge at this point would be your choice of graphs...a bar graph to show a 'relationship' ...I'll be interested in seeing how this one works out :-)
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