Holly Monroe (UR)- Wind is the Enemy!

Tuesday night I went out to begin testing for water quality at both Spruce Creek and Dunlawton Bridge. I was able to collect data at Spruce Creek, but during my time at Dunlawton a large gust of wind blew my testing kit and supplies across the bridge. I manage to recover a portion of my lost supplies, but overall my time and tests were inconclusive at Dunlawton. I attempted to continue collecting information when it began to down poor. The rain and the waves caused sediment to rise- effecting turbidity (not testable at this time). Also due to the rain salinity could not have been performed- also was not performed at Spruce Creek because i did not have any distilled water to perform the test. The nitrate and phosphate test were inconclusive at Dunlawton because sediment caused invalid readings, as seen.

Dunlawton Phosphate

Dunlawton Nitrate

 Luckily I do have some information regarding Spruce Creek including a picture of a few tests preformed. It is as follows: 

Spruce Creek Test Site

Location conditions:

• Spruce Creek.
• Date 3-31-20.
• I began testing at 8:22pm and ended at about 9:22pm.
• A friend was present, aiding me in my tests.
• Air temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (start of experiments). 
• Air temperature of 79 degrees Fahrenheit (end of experiments). 
• humidity of 62%.
• Tide (shown below).

Tide for Spruce Creek

The charts I used to determine the following results are as shown:

Test Result Comparison Chart

Test Result Comparison Chart

Tests are as follows:

• pH Test 1 (T1): 8.
• pH Test 2 (T2): 7.
• Nitrate T1: less than 5ppm (appeared lighter than 5).
• Nitrate T2: less than 5ppm.
• Phosphate T1: 2ppm.
• Phosphate T2: 2ppm.
• Biochemical Oxygen Demand: In process- takes 5 days to complete.
• Dissolved Oxygen: 8ppm- see attached photo.
• Salinity T1: Not performed- No distilled water to complete.
• Salinity T2: Not performed- No distilled water to complete.
• Turbidity: 100JTU.
• Water Temperature: See attached photo.
• Water Temperature 1km away: Unable to gather due to location and the parks closing down. I had to pull off the side of the road to perform these tests in a small clearing. The importance of this step is for calculating the change in temperatures.
• Coliform Bacteria: Unfortunately lost test tubes in the craziness of the night with other supplies. 

Spruce Creek Temperature on Site

Spruce Creek Dissolved Oxygen

Biochemical Oxygen Demand

Lastly, here was my plan of action I was originally taking before the wind problem occurred (in the process of updating due to circumstances).

• Test the locations at the same times every Tuesday in the month of April.
• For each location I was going to test pH, Phosphate, Nitrate, and the salinity test twice each night- as seen by my data layout above (would have had 10 of each test for Spruce Creek and 10 of each test for Dunlawton).
• Perform 1 coliform test (any night was optional- currently not now).
• Preform 1 dissolved oxygen test for each site (end total for Spruce Creek= 5 and end total for Dunlawton Bridge= 5).
• Preform 1 biochemical oxygen demand test at each site (end total for Spruce Creek= 5 and end total for Dunlawton Bridge= 5).
• Preform 1 water temperature test at each location (end total for Spruce Creek= 5 and end total for Dunlawton Bridge= 5).
• Preform 1 turbidity test at each location (end total for Spruce Creek= 5 and end total for Dunlawton Bridge= 5).