Robin, UR.. Oyster Mats

Hello Everyone,
Update on the natural based oyster mats. First let me remind you of the scientific question.

Is there a cost effective method of creating a natural oyster mat  vs  a plastic oyster mat?
                                                                                       

           So it was broke down into two parts:                     Method & Time  +  Material & Cost

BUT: Before I get into the results let me explain why we should care !

What is Known about oysters

They filter our water naturally, provide habitat & food for other marine life, add stability to our coastal areas and provide food for us and jobs in the fishery industry. 85% of the oyster reefs are gone and is the most severely effected marine ecosystem in the world.

Oysters in their natural environment

and the natural base solution

"So the results of my findings"

While the numbers show promise, the effectiveness is still a work in progress, I will continue  my research through the summer by deploying them and watching for development of attachment of spat. Log any and all growth patterns as well as salinity, water temperature and anything else that might be of significance. 

Amanda Adams, UR, The results are in!

Hello fellow colleagues, as I mentioned I am Amanda in the IMES program here at Daytona State. I did a fun IRP this semester on nutrients in the Central Park waters near my home. My scientific question is: Out of Cu²⁺, TIN, and PO^3-₄ which has the highest concentration in the waters of Central Park near my house? Also, do these levels exceed what the EPA deems safe?

To answer this question I had to take a little journey through the waters of Central Park to find out. 

I set out in a kayak with my field book, 250 and 500 mL amber-colored Nalgene H₂O sample bottles, my phone for Lat/Long coordinates, and a cooler to keep my samples cold. After geotagging each sample site and obtaining my grab samples, I transported them to the lab where I tested all 5 samples for the above mentioned nutrients. I used the Hach DR/890 Colorimeter: method #8026 for Cu²⁺, method #10021 for TIN, and method #8048 for Orthophosphate. 

What the EPA deems as safe levels for the nutrients that I was testing are:

§  Cu²⁺     1.3 mg/L

§  TIN       0.52 mg/L

§  PO_3-4    0.01 mg/L

My levels compared to the EPA’s are as follows:

	Cu ²⁺	TIN	PO₄³ˉ
EPA	1.3	0.52	0.01
Central Park	0.0	0.1	0.02
site 2	0.0	0.1	0.02
site 3	0.0	0.0	0.0
site 4	0.0	0.3	0.0
site 5	0.0	0.0	0.0
*I couldn't get my graph to drop in here.

Answering my SQ: Out of Cu²⁺, TIN, and PO^3-₄, the only constituents that had high levels were TIN and PO^3-₄. PO^3-₄ was the only constituent that exceeded EPA standards at two of my sample sites; therefore it would seem that PO^3-₄ is the limiting nutrient in the lakes nearest my house.

If I had the opportunity to do it over again I absolutely would! The only modifications I would make would be:

§  Sample deeper than grab samples

§  Sample before/after rain to compare

§  Seasonal sampling (spring/summer/fall/winter) to see if lake turnover has an effect on nutrient concentration.

Thank you for following my research. This was enlightening and fun. I'm learning that science can be exciting and I can hardly wait to see what will unfold in the future.

T Singleton U.R. Tomoka Landfill and marshes with cattle exceed EPA guidelines!

The EPA’s Guideline for Orthophosphate is : 0.01 mg/L

and this is what I found!

 

 

Conclusion

According to these findings, both the areas of the cow pastures and landfill are over the EPA guidelines. However the cow pasture shows higher phosphate levels than the landfill.

According to Mark Vanheden of St Johns River Water Management District, one cannot do a “gotcha type” of water sampling and blame the landfill for anything. Any polluter can only be judged based on “what leaves their property.”  Well what leaves the landfill's property indicates a level of phosphate that is 0.02 mg/L over the EPA's guideline!  

 

Errors

Unfamiliarity of the locations and terrain complicated gathering field samples and data.

Due to time constraints, collected samples were taken back to the lab and frozen to be analyzed later.
Nutrient levels are influenced by agriculture and rain.
Future Research (updated since final presentation) what would I change?
The original report said for future testing to: “Sample only on non-cattle accessible areas".
This statement was not clear because everyone took this as these high phosphate levels should be disregard completely. Not at all! This matter would be another project in itself. Pollution from cow pastures could be monitored.  The data shows that the cattle accessible areas are a larger contributor to the overall water pollution when compared to the landfill.     

In the presentation, it was mentioned to “Take all the samples on the same day & without rain for 48 hours.”  Comments made after the project pointed out the importance of future research regarding the relationship between rain and no rain days.  

Also, including a larger sample size over a longer period of time for statistical analysis would expand these findings.

The model sampling method could be applied to other projects if errors are accounted for.

Other chemicals should be investigated because this project only checked for one thing.

Jody...UR--- A Final Report and Results

My name is Jody Benet and I am a student in my final semester of an AS degree in Environmental Science at Daytona State College. My final Individual Research Project for my Aquatic Environmental class this semester is titled, Golf Courses....Good or Bad for Surface water Chemistry and more specifically my Scientific Question (SQ) I am attempting to answer is How do concentrations of total Nitrogen (N) and Phosphorous (P) in golf courses (GC) and residential ponds (RP) compare to each other and to EPA guidelines?

So this became the topic of my semester project. I now have tested the surface water in a pond inside  the golf course and a water body near a residential community in order to compare the impacts that the years of chemical applications have done or not done to the surface water at the golf course and compare those results with the EPA Guidelines for N & P. My results where unexpected and seemed to only raise more questions.
First let me start with the results of an assignment regarding chlorophyll concentrations earlier in the semester in which I used the same pond at the GC. We were asked to collect a water sample from a water body using gloves and a 250ml Amber Nalgene Bottle and brought it back to the lab on campus filtering it, extracting the chlorophyll from the filter with an acetone solution and then analyzed their concentration with the Turner Design Fluorimeter. Here is the graph displaying the classes results.  As you can see by my graph, the bar labeled Jody's golf pond had the highest chlorophyll readings with a concentration of over 35 micro-grams per liter. Which converts to 0.035mg/L which will make comparisons easier later on. This led me to assume that the N & P concentrations would be high in this pond considering that those nutrients are required for stimulating chlorophyll growth, and high amounts of chlorophyll you would think would be an indicator of high nutrients wouldn't you? Well we shall see.
Now lets look at the results of my N & P sample analysis. HERE
Here was my surprise... the GC pond had not enough phosphorous or nitrogen to register on the Hach Colorimeter while the residential water sample did. Here are my comparison results so you can see it all together. 

 EPA GUIDELINES       GC Site             Residential 

     N =   0.52 mg/L          0.00mg/L          0.027mg/L 

     P =   0.01  mg/L          0.00mg/L          0.030mg/L

The Science sometimes only poses more questions, so now instead of having answers I have allot

more questions. One of the reasons for these low concentrations could be that the nutrients N & P

have been used up or absorbed by the aquatic organisms and have not been replenished by runoff 

from the GC at the time of sampling. Some of the ways I could begin to answer these questions

would be to change the  sample techniques to a long term study called a composite study which

would require multiple samples taken over a long period of time to see if and when the nutrients

appear in the water because they have to right?, at some point be in solution in order for the aquatic

organisms to become so numerous as to have that high of an chlorophyll reading. 

But all of this is pure speculation and if this project has taught me anything it is not assume 

anything.