Work Cited

"Dissolved Oxygen and Water Quality." Commonwealth of Kentucky. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.state.ky.us/nrepc/water/wcpdo.htm>.

"Dissolved Oxygen, from USGS Water Science for Schools: All about Water." USGS Georgia Water Science Center - Home Page. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/dissolvedoxygen.html>.

Graver Water Systems | Water Treatment Equipment, Parts and Supplies. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.graver.com/>.

Middlesex Water Company. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.middlesexwater.com/>.

United Water-UW Homepage. Web. 03 Oct. 2011. <http://www.unitedwater.com/>.

Conservation Ideas

j) To maintain the health and quality of our local ecosystems we suggest making an awareness program so that local homeowners will understand the best way to treat their land to ensure the ecosystems remain thriving. There are a multitude of homes in the area with some form of natural water source on their property. With our awareness program we would warn residents against building damns on their property because they disrupt the ecosystem. Damns may work to avoid flooding for the homeowners, however, when they are built the water behind them stills increasing the plant life and the dissolved oxygen of the water, which could lead to the death of previous inhabitants of the water. Also the awareness program would suggest that residents avoid using anything chemical to treat their land. Chemical products contaminate the soil and can therefore cause harm to any animals that pass through while natural substitutes work just as well in maintaining a yard and do not cause harm to any organisms in the area. A lot of residents of our town maintain gardens, which consists of planting a variety of new plant species. If homeowners begin growing plants that are indigenous to the area the local ecosystem will flourish because they would be providing a food source for herbivores and a habitat for invertebrates in the area. If local citizens were to begin to keep even one of these tips in mind from day to day then the damage being caused to the local ecosystems would already be limited.

Water Company Outreach

i) Organizations such as United Water Rahway, Middlesex Water Company, and Graver Water Systems utilize information on dissolved oxygen and the pH and temperature of water to ensure that water is fit for human consumption.  They also work to guarantee that wastewater, water mixed with waste matter, is properly disposed of so that it does not harm humans or the environment upon disposal. Their protocol largely depends on whether or not the levels of dissolved oxygen in the water they use are acceptable. If the levels are too high that could indicate the presence of an organism living in the water that may potentially cause harm to humans. 

Analysis

h) The data that our group collected, along with the class data, as a whole, was quite varied.  There weren’t any definite patterns of trends in a majority of the data.  Still, the reason for this variation is most likely due to human error.  Throughout the duration of the lab, there were many things that could have accounted for the differing rates of dissolved oxygen and productivity.  Some examples of the possible errors that could have occurred were that there were air bubbles within the samples, and also while pouring the sample we could have added extra oxygen ultimately causing variation in results.  Also while performing the productivity part of the lab, our samples may all not have had the same amount of light which adds an extra variable to the experiment and affects the outcomes.  Albeit, we were still able to get a general understanding of the impacts of dissolved oxygen and productivity in an aquatic ecosystem.  Specifically, in the first part of the experiment, we were able test two different samples each with different temperatures.  As we used the Winkler method we were able to understand that as the temperature of the water increases, the concentration of the dissolved oxygen decreases.  This was tested by titrating both a 20 degree sample and a 0 degree sample of the same pond water. This then explains that no matter what body of water you are testing, there will be higher dissolved oxygen content within that body of water in the winter than in the summer.  The rate of dissolved oxygen can be affected by many other factors such as wind where oxygen gets mixed into the water as air blows, turbulence in which oxygen is mixed in at the water flow but is agitated by various obstructions such as rocks, fallen trees, and waterfalls, and trophic state which is when the amount of nutrients like calcium and nitrates effects the sustainability of animals in that aquatic ecosystem.  One other factor we tested in this lab was productivity and the effects of photosynthesis.  To do this we manipulated seven different samples to each absorb a different amount of light.  By putting different amounts of screens over the bottles we tested a control bottle, a dark bottle, a light bottle, a bottle with 65% light, a bottle with 25% light, a bottle with 10% light, and a bottle with 2% light.  Our data varied slightly due to the human error, but it was apparent that as the bottle became more exposed to light, there was a higher amount of both gross and net productivity.  This also then proved that the less light, the less dissolved oxygen.  This is because when light is limited photosynthesis becomes a difficult task, and sometimes even impossible.  For example, our dark bottle had the least amount of dissolved oxygen measuring only 2.2336 mg/L, whereas our initial bottle, that was not covered at all, had a dissolved oxygen rate of 3.5598 mg/L.  Overall, this experiment allowed us to analyze how different factors affect the amount of productivity and dissolved oxygen in an ecosystem.

Conclusion

g) The data accumulated from this experiment can serve an important tool in understanding things such as the importance of light and dissolved oxygen in an ecosystem.  At the end of the lab, we were able to note that the warmer the water is the less amount of oxygen absorbed.  This is because as temperature increases, the concentration of dissolved oxygen decreases.  This explains why there is a seasonal fluctuation in dissolved oxygen concentration in a body of water.  In addition, we concluded that as the amount of light to an aquatic system decreases, the dissolved oxygen amounts decrease. This is because sunlight is a key component in photosynthesis which is a process that plants undergo to produce oxygen. Without the sunlight, organisms that undergo respiration use up all of the oxygen in the water to breathe, and the plants cannot replenish the oxygen amounts because of the lack of sunlight.  Overall, the experiment proves that oxygen is an essential component in a body of water because it is necessary for metabolic processes of almost all of the life forms living within it.  The conclusions made from this lab can be beneficial to government agencies, businesses, land developers, water treatment companies, and other groups by demonstrating to them how oxygen levels in aquatic environments are easily effected and slight changes can alter the dissolved oxygen levels within the environment.  For example, as photosynthesis cannot occur during the night time, the levels of dissolved oxygen immediately drop in response to the quick shift in light exposure.  Furthermore, groups working on the environment need to fully understand what are the ideal conditions for a particular aquatic ecosystem.  By fully grasping this concept, they then have the ability to take action as well as inform the public of these problems and allowing them to change their habits as well.  This information can also be useful to government agencies because it could help them understand how productivity works, and they could then use their authority and resources to help save natural habitats and build nature preserves to ward off any form of pollution, and stop eutrophication from occurring.  Next businesses and water treatment companies can benefit from this information because it will help them monitor the pH of the water and create ideal conditions for these bodies of water to thrive in a heavily oxygen concentrated ecosystem.  Land developers also should utilize this information for it will help them be more cautious.  While they do construction, they can now make sure they are not using extremely harmful methods and chemicals.  Also it will help the prevent runoff that can ultimately destroy the environment.  Lastly, knowing this information can ultimately benefit everyone.  This is because almost everyone impacts the biogeochemical cycle through pollution at one point in their life, so knowing this information will allow all citizens to become eco-friendly leaving our aquatic ecosystems intact.