In the past week, our science class has been making several trips to our nearby rivers and ponds to collect research about invertebrates and water quality. We had 3 trips in total, 2 to the pond and 1 to the river.
One of our main goals was to test the water quality. This included Turbidity, PH, Phosphate, Temperature, Nitrates, dissolved oxygen, and salts. These things added together will make a total Q-value:
0 being the worst and 100 being the best, the Coquitlam river scored an 89.43 and the Oxbow Pond scored an 82.84.
These scores show the difference between running water and still, from the surface, you could tell that the pond was murkier and less clear, while the river was clear and looked fresh.
My group oversaw the turbidity of the water. The turbidity of water is how clear it is. A liquid with high turbidity is hard to see through.
How do you think the water quality is related to the diversity and number of invertebrates found in a water way?
The higher the Q-value, the more support there is for diverse life. There are many different invertebrates but not all of them can survive in the same condition, some can withstand lesser water qualities while others can only thrive in higher water qualities. So, the easy solution for a lot of invertebrates is to have a water quality that works for all of them.
Invertebrates:
In the pond , we found many different invertebrates, this is likely due to its higher Q value. We found some caddisfly larvae and some stonefly larvae. Here is a picture of the stonefly.
Final Thoughts:
The Activities were alright. I learned how to test water quality, the roles different factors make to increase the quality of water, and different types of invertebrates. There is a lot of meaning behind learning about water quality. If for say the drinkable water is lessening, we can test which waters are edible without risking harm to humans.