Christian Vinciquerra UR, ShAHHHks

Class conducting TSS vs Turbidity lab

      Last class February 24th, our class was given a presentation about sharks from a guest speaker who I am unable to identify. She talked to us about shark biology, physiology, and showed copious amounts of data from recent projects she's been a part of. To start the Hammerhead sharks are part of the Sphyrnidae family. She went on about how the classifications worked for all types of Hammerheads. Along with interesting facts, like how their eyes are on the ends of their elongated head, you would think a Hammerheads' vision would very extremely limited as if they're looking out to the side instead of forwards. Hammerheads actually have nearly 360º vision. They're also the most flexible shark, being able to turn on a dime. If it wanted to, Hammerheads could bite their own tail. The speaker talked to us about the research scientists have done about Hammerheads and she found that their Ampullae of Lorenzini senses the size of a creature due to the amount of electricity it gives off. If it's too big of ac harge then the shark will swim away, if it's too small the shark won't pick it up, but if it's just right then the Hammerhead will attack it. Hammerheads also swim in an 'S' shape. She thinks they do this to cover more ground while hunting. She told us about a researcher who studied their eyes and found that their eyes capture more light in the top right of their retina. Since this part of the eye picks up the most light it means the sharks eye is actually facing down toward the ocean floor. I would of never thought that these sharks would be so interesting. Right when she started her presentation I was hooked, figuratively.

TSS vs Turbidity

          So for the rest of class, we were supposed to bring a water sample in to run tests on its turbidity and total suspended solids so we can compare. The samples were taken from all over Volusia and Flagler counties from different types of water sources. So we measured out salinity first with a refractometer. Next measured turbidity with a Hach 2100n turbidimeter measured in NTU. We measured our sample five times then dropped the highest and lowest reading and took an average of the three remaining. Next we measured out total suspended solids by weighing our Whatman glass microfiber filter on a Ohause Balance with the windows shut. Next took the filter and placed it on a filtering flask and clamped a funnel on top of the filter so anything we filter through goes through the filter paper. Next we attached a Fisher scientific maximadry vacuum to apply suction. We measured our sample in a graduated cylinder and measured how much we will pour. Then poured the sample through followed by a distilled water rinse to wash away any salt water that might have been caught in the filter. Finally, we placed our filter in our tray and placed it in a Fish scientific isotemp oven at 105º C. The graph I have here is showing the results from our lab. It reads that there is not a relationship between turbidity and total suspended solids with an R^2 value of 0.68045. A majority of the points do not follow the trendline. There is one point that could be counted as an outlier, measuring 57.23 mg/L and 27.00 NTU.