Emily UR - About a week of intermission..

I need to work on my rain dance if I want to start seeing some progress in my study. Phase One is complete but waiting on a rainstorm is taking much longer than I had originally anticipated. Comically, even if there is a perfect storm for sample collecting in the coming week, I will be in Fort Pierce completing my internship with the Smithsonian Marine Research Station (so excited!) and will therefore be unable to further my study until I return on Friday evening. Hopefully my classmate Chris will have some results from his sampling of the same Tuscawilla Park stormwater management pond (SMP)!

Questions from Aleecia Sec. 65: "Why are your total phosphate concentrations so different for the one pond?"


Thank you for the question Aleecia! The question refers to the graph to the right for those who may have missed my blog from last week. I wish I could give you a more thorough answer as to specifically why there are higher concentrations of phosphorus in the Tuscawilla Park SMP compared to the Halifax Plantation SMP but for now, all I have are hypothetical sources. Phosphorus has many natural and anthropogenic, or human-caused, sources as a pollutant. A likely natural source for phosphorus pollution in this case would be atmospheric deposition as soil dust that gets blown into the upper atmosphere acts as a condensation nuclei for rainwater to condense on and will enter a water body via precipitation. Anthropogenic sources are more likely the cause here and some of those sources include fertilizers and domestic and industrial wastes. Fertilizers aren't used at Tuscawilla Park so that leaves domestic waste as a likely cause for the levels of phosphorus at the one park. Considering Tuscawilla has also been experiencing sewage management issues, domestic waste is not an unlikely source. I hope this answered your question!