Emily UR - Phases Two & Three are Underway!

Rain over Florida, 4/14/2016 8pm

My rain dance has taken effect just in time! I returned from my wonderful internship at the Smithsonian this past Friday, April 15th only to find that a heavy rain storm had passed the day before! My lovely bearded assistant/boyfriend took it upon himself to grab my buckets and leave them out for me so as to collect rainwater from the passing storm. He did this a little late into the storm but thankfully, we collected just enough water to fill one mason jar. Upon my return, I went to my ponds and collected the post-rain water in mason jars. All the jars of water are currently being kept on ice in a cooler until they can be analyzed in the lab. Because I was all caught up working with my internship, I wasn't able to catch the passing rain on my NOAA radar app, so I archived a past radar map from NOAA's website. The colorful blue, green and yellow over and heading towards Florida, shows the rain from which water was collected.

I'd like to revisit Aleecia's Question from last week which may have been answered inappropriately. 
The Question:"Why are your total phosphate concentrations so different for the one pond?"
Refer to my blog from last week for the graph she is referring to. I answered this question assuming Aleecia was referring to the different levels between the two ponds instead of what she actually meant, which is why the levels of phosphate are so varying in the one Tuscawilla Park pond. The answer to this has to do with where in the pond I collected the water. Throughout each pond the water quality varies slightly either because of vegetation or interaction with a lower quality water body. In Tuscawilla Park, I collected water from three different areas of the pond; the first was collected at a culvert connecting the pond I'm studying to a neighboring pond that is experiencing a severe algae bloom. The second sample was collected next to a concrete bridge that leads to a small island in the center of the pond and the third sample was collected at another culvert that connects my pond to a drainage basin. As pictured, you can see there are slight differences in the turbidity of the water. Collecting water from various locations along the pond allows me to possibly narrow down a source of nutrients. Hopefully, I've better answered your question this week!