Christian Vinciquerra, UR, Water Quality Tomoka State

Last week for class we met at Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach for a boat trip. We were visiting four sites along the Tomoka River to measure water quality. I was quite excited for this because it was the first time we went boating for class. The conditions were good compared to the first groups overcast class the previous week, however, we had all the wind which made it chilly out. The water grew more rough as we moved from site 1 to the site 4. At site 1, the conditions were more relaxed. We anchored off in the corner of a bank in the river and Dr. Woodall announced the directions for the day and explained the instruments being used. We were using a YSI85 to measure O2, salinity(ppt), and temperature(Cº). The instrument can also measure conductivity of the the water but we weren't measuring that for this experiment. Next we used a Hach pH reader for the surface and used the Van Doran method to collect water for deep water samples. A Secchi disk to measure the visibility in the water column. And last but not least a Hach DR890 calorimeter to measure the turbidity and phosphate levels.  We broke off in groups of 2-3 and each group used one instrument per site. Since there were four sites and roughly 4 groups everyone had a chance to use each instrument. Though out the day we had a great process working. Our group managed a very efficient and fast pace going finishing in record time by 12:30(ish) accordion got Dr. Woodall.

Inverse Secchi Depth vs Turbidity.

Here is my graph from last Friday. I measured the Inverse Secchi depth and turbidity to see if there was a correlation because the visibility in the water column to the amount of particles in the water. As you can see the R^2 reading is .61143 which tells me that there wasn't that strong of a relationship between the two. While we were on the boat looking at the data I had written down, I thought that there was going to be a stronger relationship between the two.