Hello fellow colleagues,
I am Amanda, a part of the wonderful IMES program here at
Daytona State College.
I am fortunate to be doing a continuing project that
started on the land with charting which yards in my neighborhood on the way to
the park have been chemically treated. This semester to further my project, I’m
taking it to the waters of Central Park near where I live. I’ll be sampling the
waters in 5 different sites to test for Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and
Copper (Cu). The reason I find these
particular 5 sites interesting is: 3 sites are surrounded by homes, 1 site is
in the middle of one of the lakes further from the homes, and the 5th
site is unattached to any of the lakes. The scientific question I have is: “Out of N, P, and Cu, which has the highest
concentration in the waters of Central Park near my house? And, do these levels
exceed what the EPA deems safe?”
Once I have all my water samples collected I will be
running tests in our school lab to see what the concentrations of N, P, and Cu
are in Central Lake.
At Daytona State College we are fortunate enough to have a
lab with a Hach Colorimeter and a vacuum filtration system to do the testing.
I am very excited to see what my water samples will
yield. I look forward to sharing with you all in the very near future my
progress as well as my findings.
Good post Amanda! Your and my projects are not that similar. Yours is focusing more on the residential side of the surface water nutrients. Those can differ quite a lot. The problems with surface water are multifaceted. You should use your chlorophyll comparison graph in your project as well so maybe between yours and my IRP's the viewers can get a better depth of understanding of the problem. Just a suggestion!
ReplyDeleteExcellent suggestion Jody, thanks! I am very interested to see what our IRPs will yield; this will allow us to educate others as to the importance of safeguarding ALL waterways.
ReplyDeleteHi Amanda. Sandy P. section 65 here. I understand the nitrogen and phosphorous thing but why copper? where does it come from and why would it cause a problem in your lake? or does it? Thanks for you answer! good luck with your research.
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