Our class went out to the Coquitlam River and Oxbow pond and we were testing the water and catching invertebrate. For the Coquitlam River, the tests were air temperature, water temperature, pH, Nitrate, Nitrite, Hardness, and carbonate. The air temp was (11°c). the water temp was (10°c). pH was (6.2). nitrate (0). nitrite (0). hardness (30). carbonates (0). there has been little to no rain in the days we went to the river the wind was a light breeze. the water did not smell like anything the colour was clear. You could see no turbidity in the water the invertebrates we found in the water were only water treaders AKA (Mesovelioidea). We caught a good 25 of those but nothing else. all the proof shows that the Coquitlam river is quite healthy the water is clean low chemicals in the water look clear and doesn’t smell. Now Oxbow Pond is a whole different story it had a very brown colour. The water had a smell like rotten eggs and sewage. The mud can get you stuck because it’s like quicksand but mud that isn’t as deadly. for my group, we had somewhat messed up results they were completely different. For air temp, we had average or normal results for the temperatures our average for air was (15.5°) and water was (12.5°) now our messed up results were our pH, Nitrate, nitrite, hardness, and carbonate. for pH, we had (6). other groups had (7) and (6.5) which isn’t horrible. Nitrate levels for us were (o) other groups had (20) that is a huge difference. nitrite wasn’t that messed we had (0) when others had 0.5 still a big difference. the water hardness spiked for our group we had a (60) when others only had (30) we doubled the average group’s number. Carbonate was again double with (80) and the average was (35) we ended up only 1 species of invertebrates water treaders we also found a couple of baby rainbow trouts and several water treaders but not anything else. In conclusion, the river was quite healthy as for the Pond it was murky, disgusting and smelly meaning not healthy for most organisms.
